Mary and I : forty years with the Sioux

STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D.

MARY AND I

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX

BY

STEPHEN R. RIGGS, D.D., LL.D.

MISSIONARY TO THE DAKOTAS, AND AUTHOR OF " DAKOTA GRAMMAR

AND DICTIONARY," "GOSPEL AMONG THE

DAKOTAS," ETC.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY

REV. S. C. BARTLETT, D.D.

PRESIDENT OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

BOSTON

Congregational gutrtagsScfjooI ana $ubltsfjtng ^octets

CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE

COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY STEPHEN R. RIGGS.

COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY
CONGREGATIONAL S. S. AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY.

ELECTROTYPED BY
C. J. PETERS AND SON, BOSTON.

£0 ifHg (Efjitornt,

ALFRED, ISABELLA, MARTHA, ANNA, THOMAS,
HENRY, ROBERT, CORNELIA,
AND EDNA;

TOGETHER WITH ALL THE GRANDCHILDREN GROWING

UP INTO THE MISSIONARY INHERITANCE

OF THEIR FATHERS AND

MOTHERS,

THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY
THE AUTHOR.

268014

PREFACE.

THIS book I have INSCRIBED to my own family. It will
be of interest to them, as, in part, a history of their father
and mother, in the toils and sacrifices and rewards of
commencing and carrying forward the work of evangeliz
ing the Dakota people.

Many others, who are interested in the uplifting of the
Red Men, may be glad to obtain glimpses, in these pages,
of the inside of Missionary Life in what was, not long
since, the Far West ; and to trace the threads of the in
weaving of a Christ-life into the lives of many of the
Sioux nation.

"Why don't you tell more about yourselves?" is a
question which, in various forms, has been often asked
me, during these last four decades. Partly as the answer
to questions of that kind, this book assumes somewhat
the form of a personal narrative.

While I do not claim, even at this evening time of my
life, to be freed from the desire that good Christian read
ers will think favorably of this effort of mine, I can not
expect that the appreciation with which my Dakota Gram
mar and Dictionary was received, by the literary world,
more than a quarter of a century ago, will be surpassed
by this humbler effort.

Moreover, the chief work of my life has been the part
I have been permitted, by the good Lord, to have in giv-

5

6 PREFACE.

ing the entire Bible to the Sioux Nation. This book is
only "the band of the sheaf." If, by weaving the princi
pal facts of our Missionary work, its trials and joys, its
discouragements and grand successes, into this personal
narrative of " MARY AND I," a better judgment of Indian
capabilities is secured, and a more earnest and intelligent
determination to work for their Christianization and final
Citizenship, I shall be quite satisfied.

Since the historical close of " Forty years with the
Sioux," some important events have transpired, in connec
tion with our missionary work, which are grouped together
in an Appendix, in the form of Monographs.

S. R. R.

BELOIT, Wis., January, 1880.

NOTE : — This book, first published by the author, though with
the imprint of W. G. Holmes, Chicago, has met with such favor as
to indicate that it should be brought out under auspices that would
give it to a larger circle of those interested in Indian missions.
And to carry on the life of its author to its close, and give a more
complete view of the progress of the work, another chapter has
been added, making the "Forty Years" Fifty Years with the
Sioux.

A. L. R.

INTRODUCTION.

THE churches owe a great debt of gratitude to their
missionaries, first, for the noble work they do, and, sec
ond, for the inspiring narratives they write. There is
no class of writings more quickening to piety at home
than the sober narratives of these labors abroad. The
faith and zeal, the wisdom and patience, the enterprise
and courage, the self-sacrifice and Christian peace which
they record, as well as the wonderful triumphs of grace
and the simplicity of native piety which they make known,
bring us nearer, perhaps, to the spirit and the scenes of
Apostolic times than any other class of literature. How
the churches could, or can ever, dispense with the reac
tionary influence from the Foreign Mission field, it is dif
ficult to understand. Doubtless, however, when the har
vest is all gathered, the Lord of the Harvest will, in his
wisdom, know how to supply the lack.

Some narratives are valuable chiefly for their interest
of style and manner, while the facts themselves are of
minor account. Other narratives secure attention by the
weight of their facts alone. The author of " Mary and I ;
Forty Years with the Sioux " has our thanks for giving us
a story attractive alike from the present significance of its
theme and from the frank and fresh simplicity of its
method.

It is a timely contribution. Thank God, the attention
of the whole nation is at length beginning to be turned in

7

8 INTRODUCTION.

good earnest to the chronic wrongs inflicted on the Indian
race, and is, though slowly and with difficulty, comprehend
ing the fact, long known to the friends of missions, that
these tribes, when properly approached, are singularly
accessible and responsive to all the influences of Chris
tianity and its resultant civilization. Slowest of all to
apprehend this truth, though with honorable exceptions,
are our military men. The officer who uttered that fright
ful maxim, " No good Indian but a dead Indian," — if in
deed it ever fell from his lips, — needs all the support of a
brilliant and gallant career in defence of his country to
save him from a judgment as merciless as his maxim.
Such principles, let us believe, have had their day. They
and their defenders are assuredly to be swept away by the
rising tide of a better sentiment slowly and steadily per
vading the country. The wrongs of the African have
been, in part, redressed, and now comes the turn of the
Indian. He must be permitted to have a home in fee-
simple, a recognized citizenship, and complete protection
under a settled system of law. The gospel will then do
for him its thorough work, and show once more that God
has made all nations of one blood. He is yet to have
them. It is but a question of time. And the Indian
tribes are doubtless not to fade away, but to be rescued
from extinction by the gospel of Christ working in them
and for them.

The reader who takes up this volume will not fail to
read it through. He will easily believe that Anna Baird
Riggs was " a model Christian woman," — the mother who
could bring up her boy in a log cabin where once the bear
looked in at the door, or in the log school-house with its
newspaper windows, " slab benches," and drunken teacher,
and could train him for his work of faith and persever-

INTRODUCTION. 9

ance in that dreary and forbidding missionary region, and
in what men thought that forlorn hope. And he will
learn — unless he knew it already — that a lad who in
early life hammered on the anvil can strike a strong and
steady stroke for God and man.

The reader will also recognize in the " Mary " of this
story, now gone to her rest, a worthy pupil of Mary
Lyon and Miss Z. P. Grant. With her excellent educa
tion, culture, and character, how cheerfully she left her
home in Massachusetts to enter almost alone on a field of
labor which she knew perfectly to be most fraught with
self-sacrifice, least attractive, not to say most repulsive,
of them all. How hopefully she journeyed on thirteen
days, from the shores of Lake Harriet, to plunge still
farther into the wilderness of Lac-qui-parle. How happily
she found a " home " for five years in the upper story of
Dr. Williamson's log house, in a room eighteen feet by
ten, occupied in due time by three children also. How
quietly she glided into all the details and solved all the
difficulties of that primitive life, bore with the often re
volting habits of the aborigines, taught their boys Eng
lish, and persevered and persisted till she had taught
their women "the gospel of soap." How bravely she
bore up in that terrible midnight flight from Hazel-
wood, and the long exhausting journey to St. Paul,
through the pelting rains and wet swamp-grass, arid with
murderous savages upon the trail. But it was the chief
test and glory of her character to have brought up a
family of children, among all the surroundings of Indian
life, as though amid the homes of civilization and refine
ment. All honor to such a woman, wife, and mother.
Her children rise up and call her blessed. Forty-one
years after her departure from the station at Lake Har-

10

INTRODUCTION.

riet, the present writer stood upon the pleasant shore
where the tamarack mission houses had long disappeared,
and felt that this was consecrated ground.

The other partner in this firm of " Mary and I " needs
no words of mine. He speaks here for himself, and his
labors speak for him. His Dakota Dictionary and Bible
are lasting monuments of his persevering toil, while
eleven churches with a dozen native preachers and eight
hundred members, and a flourishing Dakota Home Mis
sionary Society, bear witness to the Christian work of
himself and his few co-laborers. " Forty Years Among
the Sioux," he writes. " Forty years in the Turkish
Empire," was the story of Dr. Goodell. Fifty Years in
Ceylon, was the life-work of Levi Spalding. What rec
ords are these of singleness of aim, of energy, of Chris
tian work, and of harvests gathered and gathering for the
Master. Would that such a holy ambition might be
kindled in the hearts of many other young men as they
read these pages. How invigorating the firm assurance :
" During the years of my preparation there never came
to me a doubt of the rightness of my decision. At the
end of forty years' work I am abundantly satisfied with
the way in which the Lord has led me." How many of
those who embark in other lines of life and action can
say the same ?

And how signally was the spirit of the parents trans
mitted to the children. Almost a whole family in the
mission work : six sons and daughters among the
Dakotas, the seventh in China. I know not another
instance so marked as this. And what a power for good
to the Dakota race, past, present, and future, is gathered
up in one undaunted, single-hearted family of Christian
toilers. A part of this family it has been the writer's

INTRODUCTION. 11

privilege to know, and of two of the sons he had the
pleasure to be the teacher in the original tongues of the
Word of God. And he deems it an additional pleasure
and privilege thus to connect his name with theirs and
their mission. For not alone the dusky Dakotas, but all
the friends of the Indian tribes and lovers of the Mission
ary cause, are called on to honor the names of Pond,
Williamson, and RIGGS.

S. C. BARTLETT.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.

S

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

1837. — Our Parentage. — My Mother's Bear Story. — Mary's
Education. — Her First School Teaching. — School-houses
and Teachers in Ohio. — Learning the Catechism. — Am
bitions. — The Lord's Leading. — Mary's Teaching in Beth
lehem. — Life Threads Coming Together. — Licensure. —
Our Decision as to Life Work. — Going to IS'ew England.

— The Hawley Family. — Marriage. — Going West. —
From Mary's Letters. — Mrs. Isabella Burgess. — " Steamer
Isabella." — At St. Louis. — The Mississippi. — To the
City of Lead. — Rev. Aratus Kent. — The Lord Provides.

— Mary's Descriptions. — Upper Mississippi. — Reaching
FortSnelling 23

CHAPTER II.

1837. — First Knowledge of the Sioux. — Hennepin and Du
Luth. — Fort Snell ing. — Lakes Harriet and Calhoun. —
Three Months at Lake Harriet. — Samuel W. Pond. —
Learning the Language. — Mr. Stevens. — Temporary
Home. — That Station Soon Broken Up. — Mary's Letters.

— The Mission and People. — Native Customs. — Lord's
Supper, — " Good Voice." — Description of Our Home. —
The Garrison. — Seeing St. Anthony. — Ascent of the St.
Peters. — Mary's Letters. — Traverse des Sioux. — Prairie
Travelling. — Reaching Lac-qui-parle. — T. S. Williamson.

— A Sabbath Service. — Our Upper Room. — Experiences.

— Church at Lac-qui-parle. — Mr. Pond's Marriage. —
Mary 's Letters. — Feast< 38

13

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.

1837-1839. —The Language. —Its Growth. — System of Nota
tion. — After Changes. — What We Had to Put into the
Language. — Teaching English and Teaching Dakota. —
Mary's Letter. — Fort Renville. — Translating the Bible. —
The Gospels of Mark and John. — " Good Bird " Born. —
Dakota Names. — The Lessons We Learned. — Dakota
Washing. — Extracts from Letters. — Dakota Tents. — A
Marriage. — Visiting the Village. — Girls, Boys, and Dogs.

— G. H. Pond's Indian Hunt. — Three Families Killed. —
The Village Wail. — The Power of a Name. — Post-Office
Far Away. — The Coming of the Mail. — S. W. Pond
Comes Up. — My Visit to Snelling. — Lost my Horse. —
Dr. Williamson Goes to Ohio. — The Spirit's Presence. —
Prayer. — Mary's Reports 58

CHAPTER IV.

1838-1840. — " Eagle Help." — His Power as War Prophet. —
Makes No-Flight Dance. — We Pray Against It. — Unsuc
cessful on the War-Path. — Their Revenge. — Jean Nicol-
let and J. C. Fremont. — Opposition to Schools. — Pro
gress in Teaching. — Method of Counting. — " Lake That
Speaks." —Our Trip to Fort Snelling. — Incidents of the
Way. — The Changes There. — Our Return Journey. —
Birch-Bark Canoe. — Mary's Story. — u Le Grand Canoe."

— Baby Born on the Way. — Walking Ten Miles. — Ad
vantages of Travel. — My Visit to the Missouri River. —
"Fort Pierre."— Results 76

CHAPTER V.

1840-1843. — Dakota Braves. — Simon Anawangmane. —
Mary's Letter. — Simon's Fall. — Maple Sugar. — Adobe
Church. — Catharine's Letter. — Another Letter of Mary's.

— Left Hand's Case. — The Fifth Winter. — Mary to Her
Brother. —The Children's Morning Ride. —Visit to Haw-
ley and Ohio. — Dakota Printing. — New Recruits. —
Return. — Little Rapids, — Traverse des Sioux. — Steal-

CONTENTS. 15

ing Bread. — Forming a New Station. — Begging. — Op
position. — Thomas L. Longley. — Meeting Ojibwas. —
Two Sioux Killed. — Mary's Hard Walk 89

CHAPTER VI.

1843-1846. — Great Sorrow. — Thomas Drowned. — Mary's
Letter. — The Indians' Thoughts. — Old Gray-Leaf. —
Oxen Killed. — Hard Field. — Sleepy Eyes' Horse. — Indian
in Prison. — The Lord Keeps Us. — Simon's Shame. —
Mary's Letter. — Robert Hopkins and Agnes. — Le Bland.

— White Man Ghost. — Bennett. — Sleepy Eyes' Camp. —
Drunken Indians. — Making Sugar. — Military Company.

— Dakota Prisoners. — Stealing Melons. — Preaching and
School. —A Canoe Voyage. —Red Wing 104

CHAPTER VII.

1846-1851. — Returning to Lac-quUparle. — Reasons There
for. — Mary's Story. — " Give Me My Old Seat, Mother."

— At Lac-qui-parle. — New Arrangements. — Better Un
derstanding. — Buffalo Plenty. — Mary's Story. — Little
Samuel Died. — Going on the Hunt. — Vision of Home. —
Building House. — Dakota Camp. — Soldier's Lodge. —
Wakanmane's Village. — Making a Presbytery. — New
Recruits. — Meeting at Kaposia. — Mary's Story. — Varied
Trials. — Sabbath Worship. — " What is to Die ?" — New
Stations. — Making a Treaty. — Mr. Hopkins Drowned.

— Personal Experience 123

CHAPTER VIII.

1851-1854. — Grammar and Dictionary. — How It Grew. — Pub
lication. — Minnesota Historical Society. — Smithsonian
Institution. — Going East. — Mission Meeting at Traverse
des Sioux. — Mrs. Hopkins. — Death's Doings. — Changes
in the Mode of Writing Dakota — Completed Book. —
Growth of the Language. — In Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

— The Misses Spooner. — Changes in the Mission. — The
Ponds and Others Retire. — Dr. Williamson at Pay-zhe-

16 CONTENTS.

hoo-ta-ze. — Winter Storms. — Andrew Hunter. — Two
Families Left. — Children Learning Dakota. — Our House
Burned. —The Lord Provides 141

CHAPTER IX.

1854-1856. — Simon Anawangmane. — Rebuilding after the
Fire. — Visit of Secretary Treat. — Change of Plan. —
K zelwood Station. — Circular Saw Mill. — Mission Build
ings. — Chapel. — Civilized Community. — Making Citi
zens. — Boarding-School. — Educating our own Children.
— Financial Difficulties. — The Lord Provides. — A Great
Affliction. — Smith Burgess Williamson. — " Aunt Jane."

— Bunyan's Pilgrim in Dakota 153

CHAPTER X.

1857-1862. — Spirit Lake. — Massacres by Inkpadoota. — The
Captives. — Delivery of Mrs. Marble and Miss Gardner.

— Excitement. — Inkpadoota' s Son Killed. — United States
Soldiers. — Major Sherman. — Indian Councils. — Great
Scare. — Going Away. — Indians Sent After Scarlet End.

— Quiet Restored. — Children at School. — Quarter-Cen
tury Meeting. — John P. Williamson at Red Wood. —
Dedication of Chapel 162

CHAPTER XI.

1861-1862. — Republican Administration. — Its Mistakes. —
Changing Annuities. — Results. — Returning from General
Assembly. — A Marriage in St. Paul. — D. Wilson Moore
and Wife. — Delayed Payment. — Difficulty with the Sis-
setons. — Peace Again — Recruiting for the Southern War.
— Seventeenth of August, 1862. —The Outbreak. — Re
membering Christ's Death. — Massacres Commenced. —
Capt. Marsh's Company. — Our Flight. — Reasons There
for. — Escape to an Island. — Final Leaving.— A Wounded
Man. — Traveling on the Prairie. — Wet Night. — Taking
a Picture. — Change of Plan. — Night Travel. — Going

CONTENTS. 17

Around Fort Ridgely. — Night Scares. — Safe Passage. —
Four Men Killed. — The Lord Leads Us. — Sabbath. —
Reaching the Settlements. — Mary at St. Anthony . . .171

CHAPTER XII.

1862. — General Sibley's Expedition. — I Go as Chaplain. —
At Fort Ridgely. — The Burial Party. — Birch Coolie
Defeat. — Simon and Lorenzo Bring in Captives. — March
to Yellow Medicine. — Battle of Wood Lake. — Indians
Flee. — Camp Release. — A Hundred Captives Rescued.

— Amos W. Huggins Killed.— We Send for His Wife
and Children. — Spirit Walker Has Protected Them. —
Martha's Letter 188

CHAPTER XIII.

1862-1863. — Military Commission. — Excited Community. —
Dakotas Condemned. — Moving Camp. — The Campaign
Closed. — Findings Sent to the President. — Reaching My
Home in St. Anthony. — Distributing Alms on the Fron
tier. — Recalled to Mankato. — The Executions. — Thirty-
eight Hanged. — Difficulty of Avoiding Mistakes. — Round
Wind. — Confessions. — The Next Sabbath's Service. —
Dr. Williamson's Work. — Learning to Read. — The
Spiritual Awakening. — The Way It Came. — Mr. Pond
Invited Up. — Baptisms in the Prison. — The Lord's Sup
per. — The Camp at Snelling. — A Like Work of Grace.

— John P. Williamson. — Scenes in the Garret. — One
Hundred Adults Baptized. — Marvelous in Our Eyes . . 206

CHAPTER XIV.

1863-1866. — The Dakota Prisoners Taken to Davenport. —
Camp McClellan. — Their Treatment. — Great Mortality.

— Education in Prison. — Worship — Church Matters. —
The Camp at Snelling Removed to Crow Creek. — John
P. Williamson's Story. — Many Die. — Scouts' Camp. —
Visits to Them. —Family Threads. — Revising the New

18 CONTENTS.

Testament. — Educating Our Children. — Removal to Be-
loit. — Family Matters — Little Six and Medicine Bottle.

— With the Prisoners at Davenport 220

CHAPTER XV.

1866-1869. — Prisoners Meet their Families at the Niobrara.

— Our Summer's Visitation. — At the Scouts' Camp. —
Crossing the Prairie. — Killing Buffalo. — At Niobrara.

— Religious Meetings. — Licensing Natives. — Visiting
the Omahas. — Scripture Translating. — Sisseton Treaty
at Washington. — Second Visit to the Santees. — Artemas
and Titus Ordained. — Crossing to the Head of the Coteau.

— Organizing Churches and Licensing Dakotas. — Solo
mon, Robert, Louis, Daniel. — On Horseback in 1868. —
Visit to the Santees, Yanktons, and Brules. — Gathering
at Dry Wood. — Solomon Ordained. — Writing " Takoo
Wakan." — Mary's Sickness. — Grand Hymns. — Going
through the Valley of the Shadow. — Death ! 230

CHAPTER XVI.

1869-1870. — Home Desolate. — At the General Assembly. —
Summer Campaign. — A. L. Riggs. — His Story of Early
Life. — Inside View of Missions. — Why Missionaries'
Children Become Missionaries. — No Constraint Laid on
Them. — A. L. Riggs Visits the Missouri Sioux. — Up the
River. — The Brules. — Cheyenne and Grand River. —
Starting for Fort Wadsworth. — Sun Eclipsed. — Sisseton
Reserve. — Deciding to Build There. — In the Autumn
Assembly. — My Mother's Home. — Winter Visit to San-
tee. — Julia La Framboise 244

CHAPTER XVII.

1870-1871. — Beloit Home Broken Up. — Building on the
Sisseton Reserve. — Difficulties and Cost. — Correspon
dence with Washington. — Order to Suspend Work. — Dis
regarding the Taboo. — Anna Sick at Beloit. — Assur
ance. — Martha Goes in Anna's Place. — The Dakota

CONTENTS.

19

Churches. — Lac-qui-parle, Ascension. — John B. Ren-
Ville. _ Daniel Renville. — Houses of Worship. — Eight
Churches. —The "Word Carrier."— Annual Meeting on
the Big Sioux. — Homestead Colony. — How it Came
about. — Joseph Iron Old Man. — Perished in a Snow
Storm — The Dakota Mission Divides. — Reasons There
for 256

CHAPTER XVIII.

1870-1873. — A. L. Riggs Builds at Santee. — The Santee
High School. — Visit to Fort Sully. — Change of Agents
at Sisseton.— Second Marriage. — Annual Meeting at Good
Will. _ Grand Gathering. — New Treaty Made at Sisse
ton. —Nina Foster Riggs. — Our Trip to Fort Sully. —An
Incident by the Way. — Stop at Santee. — Pastor Ehna-
mane. _ His Deer Hunt. — Annual Meeting in 1873. —
Rev. S. J. Humphrey's Visit.— Mr. Humphrey's Sketch.

— Where They Come From. — Morning Call.— Visiting
the Teepees. — The Religious Gathering. — The Moderator.

— Questions Discussed. — The Personnel. — Putting up a
Tent. — Sabbath Service. — Mission Reunion . . . .270

CHAPTER XIX.

1873-1874. — The American Board at Minneapolis. — The
Nidus of the Dakota Mission. — Large Indian Delega
tion. — Ehnamane and Mazakootemane. — " Then and
Now." — The Woman's Meeting. —Nina Foster Riggs and
Lizzie Bishop— Miss Bishop's Work and Early Death. —
Manual Labor Boarding-School at Sisseton. — Building
Dedicated. — M. N. Adams, Agent. — School Opened.—
Mrs. Armor and Mrs. Morris.— "My Darling in God's
Garden." —Visit to Fort Berthold. — Mandans, Rees, and
Hidatsa. — Dr. W. Matthews' Hidatsa Grammar. — Be
liefs. _ Missionary Interest in Berthold. — Down the
Missouri. — Annual Meeting at Santee. — Normal School.
~- Pakotas Build a Church at Ascension. — Journey to the

20 CONTENTS.

Ojibwas with E. P. Wheeler. — Leech Lake and Red Lake,
— On the Gitche Gumme. — " The Stoneys." — Visit to
Odanah. — Hope for Ojibwas ,

CHAPTER XX.

1875-1876. — Annual Meeting of 1875. — Homestead Settlement
on the Big Sioux. — Interest of the Conference. — lapi
Oaye. — Inception of Native Missionary Work. — Theolo
gical Class. — The Dakota Home. — Charles L. Hall Or
dained. — Dr. Magoun of Iowa. — Mr. and Mrs. Hall Sent
to Berthold by the American Board.— The Word Carrier's
Good Words to Them. —The Conference of 1876. —In J.
B. Renville's Church. — Coming to the Meeting from
Sully. —Miss Whipple's Story. — "Dakota Missionary
Society." — Miss Collins' Story. — Impressions of the
Meeting 308

CHAPTER XXI.

1871-1877. — The Wilder Sioux. — Gradual Openings. -
Thomas Lawrence. — Visit to the Land of the Teetons.

— Fort Sully. — Hope Station. — Mrs. General Stanley
in the Evangelist. — Work by Native Teachers. — Thomas
Married to Nina Foster. —Nina's First Visit to Sully.—
Attending the Conference and American Board. — Miss
Collins and Miss Whipple. — Bogue Station. — The Mis
sion Surroundings. — Chapel Built. — Mission Work. —
Church Organized. — Sioux War of 1876. — Community
Excited. — Schools. — " Waiting for a Boat." — Miss
Whipple Dies at Chicago. — Mrs. Nina Riggs' Tribute.

— The Conference of 1877 at Sully. — Questions Dis
cussed. — Grand Impressions 325

APPENDIX.

MONOGRAPHS.
MRS. NINA FOSTER RIGGS 345

O£M

REV. GIDEON H. POND

SOLOMON

OQO

DR. T. S. WILLIAMSON

399
A MEMORIAL

4.08

THE FAMILY REUNION

21

MART AND I

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX.

CHAPTER I.

'"V

1337. — Our Parentage. — My Mother's Bear Story. — Mary's Edu
cation. — Her First School Teaching. — School-houses and
Teachers in Ohio. — Learning the Catechism. — Ambitions.

— The Lord's Leading. — Mary's Teaching in Bethlehem.—
Life Threads Coming Together. — Licensure. — Our Decision
as to Life Work. — Going to New England. — The Hawley
Family. — Marriage. — Going West. — From Mary's Letters.

— Mrs. Isabella Burgess. — " Steamer Isabella." — At St.
Louis. — The Mississippi. — To the City of Lead. — Rev.
Aratus Kent. — The Lord Provides. — Mary's Descriptions.
— Upper Mississippi. — Reaching Fort Snelling.

FORTY years ago this first day of June, 1877, Mary and
I came to Fort Snelling. She was from the Old Bay
State, and I was a native-born Buckeye. Her ancestors
were the Longleys and Taylors of Hawley and Buckland,
names honorable and honored in the western part of
Massachusetts. Her father, Gen. Thomas Longley, was
for many years a member of the General Court and had
served in the war of 1812, while her grandfather, Col.
Edmund Longley, had been a soldier of the Revolution,
and had served under Washington. Her maternal
grandfather, Taylor, had held a civil commission under

23

"MARYLAND I.

George the Third. In an early day both families had
settled in the hill country west of the Connecticut River.
They were the true and worthy representatives of New
England.

As it regards myself, my father, whose name was
Stephen Riggs, was a blacksmith, and for many years
an elder in the Presbyterian church of Steubenville,
Ohio, where I was born. He had a brother, Cyrus, who
was a preacher in Western Pennsylvania ; and he traced
his lineage back, through the Riggs families of New Jer
sey, a long line of godly men, ministers of the gospel and
others, to Edward Riggs,* who came over from Wales
in the first days of colonial history. My mother was
Anna Baird, a model Christian woman — as I think, of a
Scotch Irish family, which in the early days settled in
Fayette County, Pa. Of necessity they were pioneers.
When they had three children, they removed up into the
wild wooded country of the Upper Alleghany. My
mother could tell a good many bear stories. At one
time she and those first three children were left alone in
an unfinished log cabin. The father was away hunting
food for the family. When, at night, the fire was burn
ing in the old-fashioned chimney, a large black bear
pushed aside the quilt that served for the door, and, sit
ting down on his haunches, surveyed the scared family
within. But, as God would have it, to their great relief,
he retired without offering them any violence.

* Heretofore, we have supposed the first progenitor of the
Riggs Family in America was Miles ; but the investigations of
Mr. J. H. Wallace of New York show that it was Edward, who
settled in Roxbury, Mass., about the year 1635. The name of
Miles comes in later. He was the progenitor of one branch of
the family.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 25

Mary's education had been carefully conducted. She
had not only the advantages of the common town school
and home culture, but was a pupil of Mary Lyon, when
she taught in Buckland, and afterward of Miss Grant, at
Ipswich. At the age of sixteen she taught her first
school, in Williamstown, Mass. As she used to tell the
story, she taught for a dollar a week, and, at the end of
her first quarter, brought the $12 home and gave it to
her father, as a recognition of what he had expended for
her education.

It was a joy to me to meet, the other day in Chicago,
Mrs. Judge Osborne, who was one of the scholars in
this school, as it was in her father's family; and
who spoke very affectionately of Mary Ann Longley,
her teacher.

Contrasted with the present appliances for education
in all the towns, and many of the country districts also,
the common schools in Ohio, when I was a boy, were
very poorly equipped. My first school-house was a log
cabin, with a large open fireplace, a window with four
lights of glass where the master's seat was, while on the
other two sides a log was cut out and old newspapers
pasted over the hole through which the light was sup
posed to come, and the seats were benches made of slabs.
One of my first teachers was a drunken Irishman, who
often visited the tavern near by and came back to sleep
the greater part of the afternoon. This gave us a long
play spell. But he was a terrible master for the re
mainder of the day. Notwithstanding these difficulties
in the way of education, we managed to learn a good
deal. Sabbath-schools had not reached the efficiency
they now have ; but we children were taught carefully
at home. We were obliged to commit to memory the

26 MARY AND I.

Shorter Catechism, and every few months the good min
ister came around to see how well we could repeat it.
All through my life this summary of Christian doctrine
— not perfect indeed, and not to be quoted as authority
equal to the Scriptures, as it sometimes is — has been to
me of incalculable advantage. What I understood not
then I have come to understand better since, with the
opening of the Word and the illumination of the Holy
Spirit. If I were a boy again, I would learn the Shorter
Catechism.

My ambition was to learn some kind of a trade. But
I had wrought enough with my father at the anvil not to
choose that. It was hard work, and not over-clean
work. Something else would suit me better, I thought.
About that time my sister Harriet married William
McLaughlin, who was a well-to-do harness-maker in
Steubenville. This suited my ideas of life better. But
that sister died soon after her marriage, and my father
removed from that part of the country to the southern
part of the State. There in Ripley a Latin school was
opened about that time, and the Lord appeared to me in
a wonderful manner, making discoveries of himself to my
spiritual apprehension, so that from that time and on
ward my path lay in the line of preparation for such
service as he should call me unto. My father, as he
said many years afterward, had intended to educate my
younger brother James ; but he was taken away suddenly,
and I came in his place. Thus the Lord opened the way
for a commencement, and by the help of friends I was
enabled to continue until I finished the course at Jeffer
son College, and afterward spent a year at the Western
Theological Seminary at Alleghany.

Mary had been educated for a teacher. She was well

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 27

fitted for the work. And while she was still at Ipswich,
a benevolent gentleman in New York City, who had
interested himself in establishing a seminary in Southern
Indiana, sent to Miss Grant for a teacher to take charge
of the school near Bethlehem, in the family of Rev. John
M. Dickey. It was far away, but it seemed just the
opening she had been desiring. But a young woman
needed company in travelling so far westward. It was
at the time of the May meetings in New York. Clergy
men and others were on East from various parts of the
West. In several instances, however, she failed of the
company she hoped for, by what seemed singular provi
dences. And at last it was her lot to come West under
the protection of Rev. Dyer Burgess, of West Union,
Ohio. Mr. Burgess was what was called in those days
" a rabid abolitionist," and had taken a fancy to help me
along, because, as he said, I was "of the same craft."
And so it was that during his absence I was living in his
family. This is the way in which the threads of our two
lives, Mary's and mine, were brought together. A year
and a half after this I was licensed to preach the gospel
by the Chillicothe Presbytery, and we were on our way
to her mountain home in Massachusetts.

Before starting for New England, the general plan of
our life-work was arranged. Early in my course of edu
cation, I had considered the claims of the heathen upon
us Christians, and upon myself personally as a believer
in Christ; and, with very little hesitation or delay, the
decision had been reached that, God willing, I would
go somewhere among the unevangelized. And, during
the years of my preparation, there never came to me a
doubt of the nghtness of my decision. Nay, more, at
the end of forty years' work, I am abundantly satisfied

28 MARY AND I.

with the way in which the Lord has led me. If China
had been then open to the gospel, as it was twenty year*
afterward, I probably should have elected to go there.
But Dr. Thomas S. Williamson of Ripley, Ohio, ha<l
started for the Dakota field the same year that I gradu
ated from college. His representations of the needs of
these aborigines, and the starting out of Whitman and
Spalding with their wives to the Indians of the Pacific
coast, attracted me to the westward. And Mary was
quite willing, if not enthusiastic, to commence a life-work
among the Indians of the North-west, which at that time
involved more of sacrifice than service in many a far-off
foreign field. Hitherto, the evangelization of our own
North American Indians had been, and still is, in most
parts of the field, essentially a foreign mission work. It
has differed little, except, perhaps, in the element of
greater self-sacrifice, from the work in India, China, or
Japan. And so, with a mutual good understanding of
the general plan of life's campaign, with very little appre
ciation of what its difficulties might be, but with a good
faith in ourselves, and more faith in Him who has said,
"Lo, I am with you all days," Mary left her school in
Bethlehem, to which she had become a felt necessity, and
I gathered up such credentials as were necessary to the
consummation of our acceptance as missionaries of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
and we went eastward.

Railroads had hardly been thought of in those days,
and so what part of the way we were not carried by
steamboats, we rode in stages. It was only the day be
fore Thanksgiving, and a stormy evening it was, when
we hired a very ordinary one-horse wagon to carry us
and our baggage from Charlemont up to Hawley. I need

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 29

not say that in the old house at home the sister and the
daughter and granddaughter found a warm reception,
and I, the western stranger, was not long overlooked.
It was indeed a special Thanksgiving and time of family
rejoicing, when the married sister and her family were
gathered, with the brothers, Alfred and Moses and
Thomas and Joseph, and the little sister Henrietta, and
the parents and grandparents, then still living. Since
that time, one by one, they have gone to the beautiful
land above, and only two remain.

Well, the winter, with its terrible storms and deep
snows, soon passed by. It was all too short for Mary's
preparation. I found work waiting for me in preaching
to the little church in West Hawley. They were a prim
itive people, with but little of what is called wealth, but
with generous hearts ; and the three months I spent with
them were profitable to me.

On the 16th of February, 1837, there was a great gath
ering in the old meeting-house on the hill; and, after the
service was over, Mary and I received the congratulations
of hosts of friends. Soon after this the time of our
departure came. The snow-drifts were still deep on the
hills when, in the first days of March, we commenced
our hegira to the far West. It was a long and toilsome
journey — all the way to New York City by stage, and
then again from Philadelphia across the mountains to
Pittsburg in the same manner, through the March rains
and mud, we travelled on, day and night. It was quite a
relief to sleep and glide down the beautiful Ohio on a
steamer. And there we found friends in Portsmouth and
K'ipley and West Union, with whom we rested, and by
whom we were refreshed, and who greatly forwarded our
preparations for life among the Indians,

30 MARY AND I.

Of the journey Mary wrote, under date City of Penn,
March 3, 1837: "We were surprised to find sleighing
here, when there was little at Hartford and none at New
Haven and New York. We expect to spend the Sabbath
here ; and may the Lord bless the detention to ourselves
and others. Oh, for a heart more engaged to labor by the
way — to labor any and everywhere"

In West Union, Ohio, she writes from Anti-Slavery
Palace, April 5 : " Brother Joseph Riggs made us some
valuable presents. His kindness supplied my lack of a
good English merino, and Sister Riggs had prepared
her donation and laid it by, as the Apostle directs, —
one pair of warm blankets, sheets and pillow-cases.
My new nieces also seemed to partake of the same
kind spirit, and gave us valuable mementos of their
affection.

" We found Mrs. Burgess not behind, and perhaps be
fore most of our friends, in her plans and gifts. Besides
a cooking-stove and furniture, she has provided a fine
blanket and comforter, sheets, pillow-cases, towels, dried
peaches, etc. Perhaps you will fear that with so many
kind friends we shall be furnished with too many com
forts. Pray, then, that we may be kept very humble, and
receive these blessings thankfully from the Giver of every
good and perfect gift."

Mrs. Isabella Burgess, the wife of my friend Rev.
Dyer Burgess, we put into lasting remembrance by the
name we gave to our first daughter, who is now liv
ing by the great wall of China. By and by we found
ourselves furnished with such things as we supposed
we should need for a year to come, and we bade adieu
to our Ohio friends, and embarked at Cincinnati for
St. Louis.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 31

"STEAMER ISABELLA, Thursday Eve, May 4.

"We have been highly favored thus far on our way
down the Ohio. We took a last look of Indiana about
noon, and saw the waters of the separating Wabash join
those of the Ohio, and yet flow on without commingling
for ten or twelve miles, marking their course by their
blue tint and purer shade. The banks are much lower
here than nearer the source, sometimes gently sloping to
the water's edge, and bearing such marks of inundation
as trunks and roots of trees half imbedded in the sand,
or cast higher up on the shore. At intervals we passed
some beautiful bluffs, not very high, but very verdant,
and others more precipitous. Bold, craggy rocks, with
evergreen-tufted tops, and a few dwarf stragglers on their
sides. One of them contained a cave, apparently dark
enough for deeds of darkest hue, and probably it may
have witnessed many perpetrated by those daring bandits
that prowled about these bluffs during the early settle
ment of Illinois.

"Friday Eve. — This morning, when we awoke, we
found ourselves in the muddy waters of the broad Mis
sissippi. They are quite as muddy as those of a shallow
pond after a severe shower. We drink it, however, and
find the taste not quite as unpleasant as one might sup
pose from its color, though quite warm. The river is
very wide here, and beautifully spotted with large
islands. Their sandy points, the muddy waters, and
abounding snags render navigation more dangerous than
on the Ohio. We have met with no accident yet, and I
am unconscious of fear. I desire to trust in Him who
rules the water as well as the lands,"

32 MARY AND I.

" ST. Louis, May 8, 1837.

" Had you been with us this morning, you would have
sympathized with us in what seemed to be a detention
in the journey to our distant unfound home in the wilder
ness, when we heard that the Fur Company's boat left for
Fort Snelling last week. You can imagine our feelings,
our doubts, our hopes, our fears rushing to our hearts, but
soon quieted with the conviction that the Lord would
guide us in his own time to the field where he would have
us labor. We feel that we have done all in our power to
hasten on our journey and to gain information in reference
to the time of leaving this city. Having endeavored to do
this, we have desired to leave the event with God, and he
will still direct. We now have some ground for hope that
another boat will ascend the river in a week or two, and,
if so, we shall avail ourselves of the opportunity. Till
we learn something more definitely in regard to it, we
shall remain at Alton, if we are prospered in reaching
there."

In those days the Upper Mississippi was still a wild
and almost uninhabited region. Such places as Daven
port and Rock Island, which now together form a large
centre of population, had then, all told, only about a
dozen houses. The lead mines of Galena and Dubuque
had gathered in somewhat larger settlements. Above
them there was nothing but Indians and military. So
that a steamer starting for Fort Snelling was a rare thing.
It was said that less than half a dozen in a season reached
that point. Indeed, there was nothing to carry up but
goods for the Indian trade, and army supplies. Some
friends at Alton invited us to come and spend the inter
vening time. There we were kindly entertained in the

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 33

family of Mr. Winthrop S. Gilraan, who has since been
one of the substantial Christian business men in New
York City. On our leaving, Mr. Oilman bade us " look
upward," which has ever been one of our life mottoes.

At that time, a steamer from St. Louis required at
least two full weeks to reach Fort Snelling. It was an
object with us not to travel on the Sabbath, if possible.
So we planned to go up beforehand, and take the up-river
boat at the highest point. It might be, we thought, that
the Lord would arrange things for us so that we should
reach our mission field without travelling on the Day of
Rest. With this desire we embarked for Galena. But
Saturday night found us passing along by the beautiful
country of Rock Island and Davenport. In the latter
place Mary and I spent a Sabbath, and worshipped with a
few of the pioneer people who gathered in a school-
house. By the middle of the next week we had reached
the city of lead. There we found the man who had said
to the Home Missionary Society, " If you have a place
so difficult that no one wants to go to it, send me there."
And they sent the veteran, Rev. Aratus Kent, to Galena,
Illinois.

Some of the scenes and events connected with our
ascent of the Mississippi are graphically described by
Mary's facile pen :

" STEAMBOAT OLIVE BRANCH, May 17.
" We are now on our way to Galena, where we shall
probably take a boat for St. Peters. We pursue this
course, though it subjects us to the inconvenience of
changing boats, that we may be able to avoid Sabbath
travelling, if possible. One Sabbath at least will be
rescued in this way, as the Pavilion, the only boat for

34 MAKY AND I.

St. Peters at present, leaves St. Louis on Sunday ! This
we felt would not be right for us, consequently we left
Alton to-day, trusting that the Lord of the Sabbath would
speed us on our journey of 3000 miles, and enable us to
keep his Sabbath holy unto the end thereof.

" Of the scenery we have passed this afternoon, and
are still passing, I can give you no just conceptions. It
beggars description, and yet I wish you could imagine
the Illinois semi-circular shores lined with high rocks,
embosomed by trees of most delicate green, and crowned
with a grassy mound of the same tint, or rising more per
pendicularly and towering more loftily in solid columns,
defying art to form or demolish works so impregnable,
and at the same time so grand and beautiful. I have
just been gazing at these everlasting rocks mellowed by
the soft twilight. A bend in the river and an island
made them apparently meet the opposite shore. The
departing light of day favored the illusion of a splendid
city reaching for miles along the river, built of granite
and marble, and shaded by luxuriant groves, all reflected
in the quiet waters. This river bears very little resem
blance to itself (as geographies name it) after its junc
tion with the Missouri. To me it seems a misnomer to
name a river from a branch which is so dissimilar. The
waters here are comparatively pure and the current mild.
Below, they are turbid and impetuous, rolling on in their
power, and sweeping all in their pathway onward at the
rate of five or six miles an hour.

"Just below the junction we were astonished and
amused to see large spots of muddy water surrounded by
those of a purer shade, as if they would retain their
distinctive character to the last ; but in vain, for the les
ser was contaminated and swallowed up by the greater.

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 35

I might moralize on this, but will leave each one to draw
his own inferences."

"STEPHENSON (now Davenport), May 22.
"We left the Olive Branch between 10 and 11 on
Saturday night. The lateness of the hour obliged us to
accept of such accommodations as presented themselves
first, and even made us thankful for them, though they
were the most wretched I ever endured. I do not allude
to the house or table, though little or nothing could be
said in their praise, but to the horrid profanity. Con
nected with the house and adjoining our room was a
grocery, a devil's den indeed, and so often were the fre
quent volleys of dreadful oaths that our hearts grew sick,
and we shuddered and sought to shut our ears. Not
withstanding all this, we were happier than if we had
been travelling on God's holy day. Our consciences
approved resting according to the commandment, though
they did not chide for removing, even on the Sabbath, to
a house were God's name is not used so irreverently —

so profanely."

11 GALENA, May 23.

" This place, wild and hilly, we reached this afternoon,
and have been very kindly received by some Yankee
Christian friends, where we feel ourselves quite at home,
though only inmates of this hospitable mansion a few
hours. Surely the Lord has blessed us above measure in
providing warm Christian hearts to receive us. Mr. and
Mrs. Fuller, where we are, supply the place of the Gil-
mans of Alton. We hope to leave in a day or two for
Fort Snelling."

" GALENA, 111., May 25, 1837.

"A kind Providence has so ordered our affairs that we
are detained here still, and I hope our stay may promote

36 MARY AND I.

the best interests of the mission. It seems desirable
that Christians in these villages of the Upper Mississippi
should become interested in the missionaries and the
missions among the northern Indians, that their preju
dices may be overcome and their hearts made to feel the
claims those dark tribes have upon their sympathies,
their charities, and their prayers."

" STEAMER PAVILION, Upper Mississippi, May 31.

" We are this evening (Wednesday) more than 100
miles above Prairie du Chien, on our way to St. Peters,
which we hope to reach before the close of the week,
that we may be able to keep the Sabbath on shore. You
will rejoice with us that we have been able, in all our
journey of 3000 miles, to rest from travelling on the Sab
bath. Last Saturday, however, our principles and feel
ings were tried by this boat, for which we had waited
three weeks, and watched anxiously for the last few days,
fearing it would subject us to Sabbath travelling. Sat
urday eve, after sunset, when our wishes had led us to
believe it would not leave, if it should reach Galena
until Monday, we heard a boat, and soon our sight con
firmed our ears. Mr. Riggs hastened on board and
ascertained from the captain that he should leave Sab
bath morning. The inquiry was, shall we break one
command in fulfilling another ? We soon decided that
it was not our duty to commence a journey under these
circumstances even, and retired to rest, confident the
Lord would provide for us. Notwithstanding our pros
pects were rather dark, I felt a secret hope that the Lord
would detain the Pavilion until Monday. If I had any
faith it was very weak, for I felt deeply conscious we
were entirely undeserving such a favor. But judge of

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 37

our happy surprise, morning and afternoon, on our way to
and from church, to find the Pavilion still at the wharf.
We felt that it was truly a gracious providence. On
Monday morning we came on board."

This week on the Upper Mississippi was one of quiet
joy. We had been nearly three months on our way from
Mary's home in Massachusetts. God had prospered us
all the way. Wherever we had stopped we had found
or made friends. The Lord, as we believed, had signally
interfered in our behalf, and helped us to " remember the
Sabbath day," and to give our testimony to its sacred
observance. The season of the year was inspiring. A
resurrection to new life had just taken place. All exter
nal nature had put on her beautiful garments. And day
after day — for the boat tied up at night — we found
ourselves passing by those grand old hills and wonderful
escarpments of the Upper Mississippi. We were in the
wilds of the West, beyond the cabins of the pioneer. We
were passing the battle-fields of Indian story. Nay,
more, we were already in the land of the Dakotas, and
passing by the teepees and the villages of the red man, for
whose enlightenment and elevation we had left friends
and home. Was it strange that this was a week of in
tense enjoyment, of education, of growth in the life of
faith and hope ? And so, as I said in the beginning, on
the first day of June, 1837, Mary and I reached, in safety,
the mouth of the Minnesota, in the land of the Dako-
tns.

CHAPTER II.

1837. — First Knowledge of the Sioux. — Hennepin and Du Luth. —
Fort Snelling. — Lakes Harriet and Calhoun. — Three Months
at Lake Harriet. — Samuel W. Pond. — Learning the Lan
guage. — Mr. Stevens. — Temporary Home. — That Station
Soon Broken Up. — Mary's Letters. — The Mission and People.
Native Customs. — Lord's Supper, — "Good Voice." — De
scription of Our Home. — The Garrison. — Seeing St. Anthony.
— Ascent of the St. Peters. —Mary's Letters. — Traverse
des Sioux. — Prairie Travelling. — Rea'ching Lac-qui-parle. —
T. S. Williamson. — A Sabbath Service. — Our Upper Room.
Experiences.— Church at Lac-qui-parle. — Mr. Pond's Mar
riage. — Mary's Letters. — Feast.

ABOUT two hundred and forty years ago, the French
voyagers and fur traders, as they came from Nouvelle,
France, up the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes,
began to hear, from Indians farther east, of a great and
warlike people, whom they called Nadouwe or Nado-
waessi, enemies. Coming nearer to them, both trader
and priest met, at the head of Lake Superior, representa
tives of this nation, " numerous and fierce, always at war
with other tribes, pushing northward and southward and
westward," so that they were sometimes called the " Iro-
quois of the West."

But really not much was known of the Sioux until the
summer of 1680, when Hennepin and Du Luth met in a
camp of Dakotas, as they hunted buffalo in what is now
north-western Wisconsin. Hennepin had been captured
by a war-party, which descended the Father of Waters in

38

FOETY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 39

their canoes, seeking for scalps among their enemies, the
Miamis and Illinois. They took him and his companions
of the voyage up to their villages on the head-waters of
Rum River, and around the shores of Mille Lac and Knife
Lake. From the former of these the eastern band of the
Sioux nation named themselves Mdaywakantonwan,
Spirit Lake Villagers; and from the latter they in
herited the name of Santees (Isanyati), Dwellers on Knife.

These two representative Frenchmen, thus brought to
gether, at so early a day, in the wilds of the West, visited
the home of the Sioux, as above indicated, and to them
we are indebted for much of what we know of the Dako-
tas two centuries ago.

The Ojibwas and Hurons were then occupying the
southern shores of Lake Superior, and, coming first into
communication with the white race, they were first
supplied with fire-arms, which gave them such an advan
tage over the more warlike Sioux that, in the next
hundred years, we find the Ojibwas in possession of all
the country on the head-waters of the Mississippi, while
the Dakotas had migrated southward and westward.

The general enlistment of the Sioux, and indeed of all
these tribes of the North-west, on the side of the British
in the war of 1812, showed the necessity of a strong
military garrison in the heart of the Indian country.
Hence the building of Fort Snelling nearly sixty years
ago. At the confluence of the Minnesota with the Mis
sissippi, and on the high point between the two it has an
admirable outlook. So it seemed to us as we approached
it on that first day of June, 1837. On our landing we
became the guests of Lieutenant Ogden and his excellent
wife, who was the daughter of Major Loomis. To Mary
and me, every thing was new and strange. We knew

40 MARY AND I.

nothing of military life. But our sojourn of a few days
was made pleasant and profitable by the Christian sym
pathy which met us there — the evidence of the Spirit's
presence, which, two years before, had culminated in the
organization of a Christian church in the garrison, on the
arrival of the first missionaries to the Dakotas.

The Falls of St. Anthony and the beautiful Minne-
haha have now become historic, and Minnetonka has
become a place of summer resort. But forty years ago
it was only now and then that the eyes of a white
man, and still more rarely the eyes of a white woman,
looked upon the Falls of Curling Water ; * and scarcely any
one knew that the water in Little Falls Creek came from
Minnetonka Lake. But nearer by were the beautiful
lakes Calhoun and Harriet. On the first of these was
the Dakota Village, of which Claudman and Drifter
were then the chiefs ; and on whose banks the brothers
Pond had erected the first white man's cabin ; and on the
north bank of the latter was a mission station of the
American Board, commenced two years before by Rev.
Jedediah D. Stevens.

Here we were in daily contact with the Dakota men,
women, and children. Here we began to listen to the
strange sounds of the Dakota tongue ; and here we made
our first laughable efforts in speaking the language.

We were fortunate in meeting here Rev. Samuel W.
Pond, the older of the brothers, who had come out from
Connecticut three years previous, and, in advance of all
others, had erected their missionary cabin on the margin
of Lake Calhoun. Mr. Pond's knowledge of Dakota was

* Minnehaha means " Curling Water," not "Laughing Water,"
as many suppose.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 41

quite ~ nelp to us, who were just commencing to learn it.
Before we left the States, it had been impressed upon us
by Secretary David Greene that whether we were suc
cessful missionaries or not depended much on our acquir
ing a free use of the language. And the teaching of my
own experience and observation is that if one fails to
make a pretty good start the first year in its acquisition,
it will be a rare thing if he ever masters the language.
And so, obedient to our instructions, we made it our first
work to get our ears opened to the strange sounds, and
our tongues made cunning for their utterance. Often
times we laughed at our own blunders, as when I told
Mary, one day, that pish was the Dakota for fish. A
Dakota boy had been trying to speak the English word.
Mr. Stevens had gathered, from various sources, a vocab
ulary of five or six hundred words. This formed the
commencement of the growth of the Dakota Grammar
and Dictionary which I published fifteen years after
ward.

Mr. and Mrs. Stevens were from Central New York,
and were engaged as early as 1827 in missionary labors
on the Island of Mackinaw. In 1829, Mr. Stevens and
Rev. Mr. Coe made a tour of exploration through the
wilds of Northern Wisconsin, coming as far as Fort Snell-
ing. For several years thereafter, Mr. Stevens was
connected with the Stockbridge mission on Fox Lake ;
and in the summer of 1835 he had commenced this sta
tion at Lake Harriet. At the time of our arrival he had
made things look quite civilized. He had built two
1 muses of tamarack logs, the larger of which his own
family occupied ; the lower part of the other was used for
the school and religious meetings. Half a dozen board
ing scholars, chiefly half-breed girls, formed the nucleus

42 MARY AND I.

of the school, which was taught by his niece, Miss Lucy
C. Stevens, who was afterward married to Rev. Daniel
Gavan, of the Swiss mission to the Dakotas.

As the mission family was already quite large enough
for comfort, Mary and I, not -wishing to add to any one's
burdens, undertook to make ourselves comfortable in a
part of the school-building. Our stay there was to be only
temporary, and hence it was only needful that we take
care of ourselves, and give such occasional help in the
way of English preaching and otherwise as we could.
The Dakotas did not yet care to hear the gospel. The
Messrs. Pond had succeeded in teaching one young man
to read and write, and occasionally a few could be in
duced to come and listen to the good news. It was seed-
sowing time. Many seeds fell by the wayside or on the
hard path of sin. Most fell among thorns. But some
found good ground, and, lying dormant a full quarter of a
century, then sprang up and fruited in the prison at Man-
kato. Also of the girls in that first Dakota boarding-
school quite a good proportion became Christian women
and the mothers of Christian families.

But the mission at Lake Harriet was not to continue
long. In less than two years from the time we were
there, two Ojibwa young men avenged the killing of their
father by waylaying and killing a prominent man of the
Lake Calhoun Village. A thousand Ojibwas had just left
Fort Snelling to return to their homes by way of Lake
St. Croix and the Rum River. Both parties were followed
by the Sioux, and terrible slaughter ensued. But the
result of their splendid victory was that the Lake Cal
houn people were afraid to live there any longer, and so
they abandoned their village and plantings and settled on
the banks of the Minnesota,

FOKTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 43

During our three months' stay at Lake Harriet, every
thing we saw and heard was fresh and interesting, and
Mary could not help telling of them to her friends in
Hawley. The grandfather was ninety years old, to whom
she thus wrote : —

"LAKE HARRIET, June 22, 1837.

" We are now on missionary ground, and are surrounded
by those dark people of whom we often talked at your
fireside last winter. I doubt not you will still think and
talk about them, and pray for them also. And surely
your grandchildren will not be forgotten.

" We reached this station two weeks since, after enjoy
ing Lieutenant Ogden's hospitality a few days, and were
kindly welcomed by Mr. Stevens' family, with whom we
remain until a house, now occupied by the school, can be
prepared, so that we can live in a part of it. Then we
shall feel still more at home, though I hope our rude
habitation will remind us that we are pilgrims on our way
to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

" The situation of the mission houses is very beautiful,
— on a little eminence, just upon the shore of a lovely
lake skirted with trees. About a mile north of us is Lake
Calhoun, on the margin of which is an Indian village
of about twenty lodges. Most of these are bark houses,
some of which are twenty feet square, and others are
tents, of skin or cloth. Several days since I walked over
to the village, and called at the house of one of the
chiefs. He was not at home, but his daughters smiled
very good-naturedly upon us. We seated ourselves on
a frame extending on three sides of the house, covered
with skins, which was all the bed, sofa, and chairs they
had,

44 MARY AND I.

" Since our visit at the village, two old chiefs have
called upon us. One said, this was a very bad country, —
ours was a good country, — we had left a good country,
and come to live in his bad country, and he was glad.
The other called on Sabbath evening, when Mr. Riggs
was at the Fort, where he preaches occasionally. He
inquired politely how I liked the country, and said it was
bad. What could a courtier have said more ?

" The Indians come here at all hours of the day with
out ceremony, sometimes dressed and painted very fan
tastically, and again with scarcely any clothing. One
came in yesterday dressed in a coat, calico shirt, and cloth
leggins, the only one I have seen with a coat, excepting
two boys who were in the family when we came. The
most singular ornament I have seen was a large striped
snake, fastened among the painted hair, feathers, and rib
bons of an Indian's head-dress, in such a manner that it
could coil round in front and dart out its snake head, or
creep down upon the back at pleasure. During this the
Indian sat perfectly at ease, apparently much pleased at
the astonishment and fear manifested by some of the
family."

"June 26.

"Yesterday Mr. Riggs and myself commemorated a
Saviour's love for the first time on missionary ground.
The season was one of precious interest, sitting down at
Jesus' table with a little band of brothers and sisters, one
of whom was a Chippewa convert, who accompanied Mr.
Ayer from Pokeguma. One of the Methodist mission
aries, Mr. King, with a colored man, and the members of
the church from the Fort and the mission, completed our
band of fifteen. Two of these were received on this
occasion, Several Sioux were present, and gazed on the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 45

strange scene before them. A medicine man, Howashta
by name, was present, with a long pole in his hand, hav
ing his head decked with a stuffed bird of brilliant
plumage, and the tail of another of dark brown. His
name means " Good Voice," and he is building him a log
house not far from the mission. If he could be brought
into the fold of the Kind Shepherd, and become a humble
and devoted follower of Jesus, he might be instrumental
of great good to his people. He might indeed be a
Good Voice bringing glad tidings to their dark souls."

TO HER MOTHER.

"HOME, July 8, 1837.

" Would that you could look in upon us ; but as you
can not, I will try and give you some idea of our home.
The building fronts the lake, but our part opens upon
the woodland back of its western shore. The lower room
has a small cooking-stove, given us by Mrs. Burgess, a
few chairs and a small table, a box and barrel containing
dishes, etc., a small will-be pantry, when completed, under
the stairs, filled with flour, corn-meal, beans, and stove
furniture. Our chamber is low, and nearly filled by a bed,
a small bureau and stand, a table for writing, made of a
box, and the rest of our half-dozen chairs and one rocking-
chair, cushioned by my mother's kind forethought.

"The rough, loose boards in the chamber are covered
with a coarse and cheap hair-and-tow carpeting, to save
labor. The floor below will require some cleaning, but I
shall not try to keep it white. I have succeeded very
well, according to my judgment, in household affairs, —
that is, very well for me.

" Some Indian women came in yesterday bringing
strawberries, which I purchased with beans. Poor crea-

46 MAKY AND I.

tures, they have very little food of any kind at this season
of the year, and we feel it difficult to know how much it
is our duty to give them.

" We are not troubled with all the insects which used
to annoy me in Indiana, but the mosquitoes are far more
abundant. At dark, swarms fill our room, deafen our
ears, and irritate our skin. For the last two evenings we
have filled our house with smoke, almost to suffocation,
to disperse these our officious visitors."

"July 31.

"Until my location here, I was not aware that it was
so exceedingly common for officers in the army to have
two wives or more, — but one, of course, legally so. For
instance, at the Fort, before the removal of the 'last
troops, there were but two officers who were not known
to have an Indian woman, if not half-Indian children.
You remember I used to cherish some partiality for the
military, but I must confess the last vestige of it has
departed. I am not now thinking of its connection with
the Peace question, but with that of moral reform. Once,
in my childhood's simplicity, I regarded the army and its
discipline as a school for gentlemanly manners, but now
it seems a sink of iniquity, a school of vice."

With the month of September came the time of our
departure for Lac-qui-parle. But Mary had not yet seen
the Falls of St. Anthony. And so we harnessed up a
horse and cart, and had a pleasant ride across the prairie
to the government saw-mill, which, with a small dwelling
for the soldier occupant, was then the only sign of civili
zation on the present site of Minneapolis. Then we had
our household goods packed up and put on board Mr.
Prescott's Mackinaw boat, to be carried up to Traverse

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 47

des Sioux. Mr. Prescott was a white man with a Dakota
wife, and had been for years engaged in the fur trade.
He had on board his winter outfit. Mary and I took
passage with him and his family, and spent a week of
new life on what was then called the Saint Peter's River.
The days were very enjoyable, and the nights were quite
comfortable, for we had all the advantages of Mr. Pres-
cott's tent and conveniences for camp life. His propel
ling force was the muscles of five Frenchmen, who worked
the oars and the poles, sometimes paddling and sometimes
pushing, and often, in the upper part of the voyage,
wading to find the best channel over a sand-bar. But
they enjoyed their work, and sang songs by the way.

"Sept. 2, 1837.

"Dr. Williamson arrived at Lake Harriet after a six
days' journey from home, and assured us of their kindest
wishes, and their willingness to furnish us with corn and
potatoes, and a room in their house. We have just break
fasted on board our Mackinaw, and so far on our way
have had cause for thankfulness that God so overruled
events, even though some attendant circumstances were
unpleasant. It is also a great source of comfort that we
have so good accommodations and Sabbath-keeping com
pany. You recollect my mentioning the marriage of Mr.
and Mrs. Prescott, and of his uniting with the church at
Lake Harriet, in the summer.

" Perhaps you may feel some curiosity respecting our
appearance and that of our barge. Fancy a large boat
of forty feet in length, and perhaps eight in width in the
middle, capable of carrying five tons, and manned by five
men, four at the oars and a steersman at the stern. Near

48 MARY AND I.

the centre are our sleeping accommodations nicely rolled
up, on which we sit, and breakfast and dine on bread,
cold ham, wild fowl, etc. We have tea and coffee for
breakfast and supper. Mrs. Prescott does not pitch and
strike the tent, as the Indian women usually do ; but it is
because the boatmen can do it, and her husband does not
require as much of her as an Indian man. They accom
modate us in their tent, which is similar to a soldier's
tent, just large enough for two beds. Here we take our
supper, sitting on or by the matting made by some of
these western Indians, and then, after worship, lie down
to rest."

" Monday, Sept. 4.

" Again we are on our way up the crooked Saint Peter's,
having passed the Sabbath in our tent in the wilderness,
far more pleasantly than the Sabbath we spent in St.
Louis. Last Saturday I became quite fatigued sympa
thizing with those who drew the boat on the Rapids, and
with following my Indian guide, Mrs. Prescott, through
the woods, to take the boat above them. The fall at
this stage of water was, I should think, two feet, and
nearly perpendicular, excepting a very narrow channel,
where it was slanting. The boat being lightened, all the
men attempted to force it up this channel, some by the
rope attached to the boat, and others by pulling and
pushing it as they stood by it on the rocks and in the
water. Both the first and second attempts were fruitless.
The second time the rope was lengthened and slipped
round a tree on the high bank, where the trader's wife
and I were standing. Her husband called her to hold
the end of the rope, and, as I could not stand idle,
though I knew I could do no good, I joined her,
watching the slowly ascending boat with the deepest

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 49

interest. A moment more and the toil would have been
over, when the rope snapped, and the boat slid back in a
twinkling. It was further lightened and the rope doub
led, and then it was drawn safely up and re-packed, in
about two hours and a half from the time we reached the
Rapids."

" Tuesday, Sept. 5.

" In good health and spirits, we are again on our way.
As the river is shallow and the bottom hard, poles have
been substituted for oars ; boards placed along the boat's
sides serve for a footpath for the boatmen, who propel the
boat by fixing the pole into the earth at the prow and
pushing until they reach the stern.

" At Traverse des Sioux our land journey, of one hun
dred and twenty-five miles to Lac-qui-parle, commenced.
Here we made the acquaintance of a somewhat remark
able French trader, by name Louis Provencalle, but
commonly called Le Bland. The Indians called him
Skadan, Little White. He was an old voyager, who
could neither read nor write, but, by a certain force of
character, he had risen to the honorable position of trader.
He kept his accounts with his Indian debtors by a system
of hieroglyphics.

" For the next week we were under the^ convoy of Dr.
Thomas S. Williamson and Mr. Gideon H. Pond, who
met us with teams from Lac-qui-parle. The first night of
our camping on the prairie, Dr. Williamson taught me a
lesson which I never forgot. We were preparing the
tent for the night, and I was disposed to let the rough
ness of the surface remain, and not even gather grass for
a bed, which the Indians do; on the ground, as I said,
that it was for only one night. l But,' said the doctor,

50 MARY AND I.

1 there will be a great many one nights? And so I have
found it. It is best to make the tent comfortable for one
night."

This was our first introduction — Mary's and mine —
to the broad prairies of the West. At first, we kept in
sight of the woods of the Minnesota, and our road lay
among and through little groves of timber. But by and
by we emerged into the broad savannahs — thousands of
acres of meadow unmowed, and broad rolling country
covered, at this time of year, with yellow and blue flow
ers. Every thing was full of interest to us, even the Bad
Swamp, — We we Shecha, — which so bent and shook under
the tramp of our teams, that we could almost believe it
would break through and let us into the earth's centre.
For years after, this was the great fear of our prairie
travelling, always reminding us very forcibly of Bun-
yan's description of the " Slough of Despond." The
only accident of this journey was the breaking of the
axle of one of Mr. Pond's loaded carts. It was Satur
day afternoon. Mr. Pond and Dr. Williamson remained
to make a new one, and Mary and I went on to the
stream where we were to camp, and made ready for the
Sabbath.

•
" ON THE BROAD PRAIRIE OF ' THE FAR WEST.'

" Saturday Eve., Sept. 9, 1837.
" My Ever Dear Mother; —

" Just at twilight I seat myself upon the ground by our
fire, with the wide heavens above for a canopy, to com
mune with her whose yearning heart follows her children
wherever they roam. This is the second day we have
travelled on this prairie, having left Traverse des Sioux

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX.

51

late Thursday afternoon. Before leaving that place, a
little half-Indian girl, daughter of the trader where we
stopped, brought me nearly a dozen of eggs (the first I
had seen since leaving the States), which afforded us a
choice morsel for the next day. To-morrow we rest, it
being the Sabbath, and may we and you be in the Spirit
on the Lord's day."

" LAC-QUI-PARLE, Sept. 18.

" The date will tell you of our arrival at this station,
where we have found a home. We reached this place on
Wednesday last, having been thirteen days from Fort
Snelling, a shorter time than is usually required for such
a journey, the Lord's hand being over us to guide and
prosper us on our way. Two Sabbaths we rested from
our travels, and the last of them was peculiarly refresh
ing to body and spirit. Having risen and put our tent in
order, we engaged in family worship, and afterward
partook of our frugal meal. Then all was still in that
wide wilderness, save at intervals, when some bird of
passage told us of its flight and bade our wintry clime
farewell.

" Before noon we had a season of social worship, lifting
up our hearts with one voice in prayer and praise, and
reading a portion of God's Word. It was indeed pleasant
to think that God was present with us, far away as we
were from any human being but ourselves. The day
passed peacefully away, and night's refreshing slumbers
succeeded. The next morning we were on our way be
fore the sun began his race, and having ridden fifteen
or sixteen miles, according to our best calculations, we
stopped for breakfast and dinner at a lake where wood
and water could both be obtained, two essentials which
frequently are not found together on the prairie.

52 MARY AND I.

"Thus you will be able to imagine us with our twro
one-ox carts and a double wagon, all heavily laden, as we
have travelled across the prairie."

Thomas Smith Williamson had been ten years a prac
tising physician in Ripley, Ohio. There he had married
Margaret Poage, of one of the first families. One after
another their children had died. Perhaps that led them
to think that God had a work for them to do elsewhere.
At any rate, after spending a year in the Lane Theologi
cal Seminary, the doctor turned his thoughts toward the
Sioux, for whom no man seemed to care. In the spring
of 1834 he made a visit up to Fort Snelling. And in
the year following, as has already been noted, he came as
a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., with his wife and one
child, accompanied by Miss Sarah Poage, Mrs. William
son's sister, and Mr. Alexander G. Huggins and his wife,
with twro children.

This company reached Fort Snelling a week or twro in
advance of Mr. Stevens, and were making preparations
to build at Lake Calhoun ; but Mr. Stevens claimed the
right of selection, on the ground that he had been there
in 1829. And so Dr. Williamson and his party accepted
the invitation of Mr. Joseph Renville, the Bois Brule
trader at Lac-qui-parle, to go two hundred miles into the
interior. All this was of the Lord, as it plainly appeared
in after years. At the time we approached the mission
at Lac-qui-parle, they had been two full years in the field,
and, under favorable auspices, had made a very good
beginning. About the middle of September, after a
pretty good week of prairie travel, we were very glad to
receive the greetings of the mission families. . . .

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 53

A few days after our arrival, Mary wrote : " The even
ing we came, we were shown a little chamber, where we
spread our bed and took up our abode. On Friday, Mr.
Riggs made a bedstead, by boring holes and driving
slabs into the logs, across which boards are laid. This
answers the purpose very well, though rather uneven.
Yesterday was the Sabbath, and such a Sabbath as I never
before enjoyed. Although the day was cold and stormy,
and much like November, twenty-five Indians and part-
bloods assembled at eleven o'clock in our school-room for
public worship. Excepting a prayer, all the exercises
were in Dakota and French, and most of them in the for
mer language. Could you have seen these Indians kneel
with stillness and order, during prayer, and rise and
engage in singing hymns in their own tongue, led by one
of their own tribe, I am sure your heart would have been
touched. The hymns were composed by Mr. Renville
the trader, who is probably three-fourths Sioux."

Doctor Williamson had erected a log house a story and
a half high. In the lower part was his own living-room,
and also a room with a large open fire-place, which then, and
for several years afterward, was used for the school and
Sabbath assemblies. In the upper part there were three
rooms, still in an unfinished state. The largest of these,
ten feet wide and eighteen feet long, was appropriated
to our use. We fixed it up with loose boards overhead,
and quilts nailed up to the rafters, and improvised a bed
stead, as we had been unable to bring ours farther than
Fort Snelling.

That room we made our home for five winters. There
were some hardships about such close quarters, but, all in
all, Mary and I never enjoyed five winters better than

54 MARY AND I.

those spent in that upper room. There our first three
children were born. There we worked in acquiring the
language. There we received our Dakota visitors. There
I wrote and wrote again my ever growing dictionary.
And there, with what help I could obtain, I prepared for
the printer the greater part of the New Testament in
the language of the Dakotas. It was a consecrated
room.

Well, we had set up our cooking-stove in our upper
room, but the furniture was a hundred and twenty-five
miles away. It was not easy for Mary to cook with noth
ing to cook in. But the good women of the mission
came to her relief with kettle and pan. More than this,
there were some things to be done now which neither
Mary nor I had learned to do. She was not an adept at
making light bread, and neither of us could milk a cow.
She grew up in New England, where the men alone did
the milking, and I in Ohio, where the women alone
milked in those days. At first it took us both to milk a
cow, and it was poorly done. But Mary succeeded best.
Nevertheless, application and perseverance succeeded,
and, although never boasting of any special ability in
that line of things, I could do my own milking, and Mary
became very skilful in bread-making, as well as in other
mysteries of housekeeping.

The missionary work began now to open before us.
The village at Lac-qui-parle consisted of about 400 per
sons, chiefly of the Wahpaton, or Leaf-village band of
the Dakotas. They were very poor and very proud.
Mr. Renville, as a half-breed and fur-trader, had acquired
an unbounded influence over many of them. They were
willing to follow his leading. And so the young men of

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 55

his soldiers' lodge were the first, after his own family, to
learn to read. On the Sabbath, there gathered into this
lower room twenty or thirty men and women, but mostly
women, to hear the* Word as prepared by Dr. William
son with Mr. Renville's aid. A few Dakota hymns had
been made, and were sung under the leadership of Mr.
Huggins or young Mr. Joseph Renville. Mr. Renville
and Mr. Pond made the prayers in Dakota. Early in the
year 1836, a church had been organized, which at this
time contained seven native members, chiefly from Mr.
Renville's household. And in the winter which followed
our arrival nine were added, making a native church of
sixteen, of which one half were full-blood Dakota women,
and in the others the Dakota blood greatly predomi
nated.

One of the noted things that took place in those au
tumn days was the marriage of Mr. Gideon Holister
Pond and Miss Sarah Poage. That was the first couple
I married, and I look back to it with great satisfaction.
The bond has been long since sundered by death, but it
was a true covenant entered into by true hearts, and re
ceiving, from the first, the blessing of the Master. Mr.
Pond made a great feast, and " called the poor, and the
maimed, and the halt, and the blind," and many such
Dakotas were there to be called. They could not recom
pense him by inviting him again, and it yet remains that
"he shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."

Nov. 2.

"Yesterday the marriage referred to was solemnized.
Could I paint the assembly, you would agree with me
that it was deeply and singularly interesting. Fancy, for
a moment, the audience who were witnesses of the scene.

56 MARY AND I.

The rest of our missionary band sat near those of our
number who were about to enter into the new and sacred
relationship, while most of the room was filled with our
dark-faced guests, a blanket or a buffalo robe their chief
'wedding garment,' and coarse and tawdry beads,
brooches, paint, and feathers their wedding ornaments.
Here and there sat a Frenchman or half-breed, whose
garb bespoke their different origin. No turkey or eagle
feathers adorned the hair, or parti-colored paint the face,
though even their appearance and attire reminded us of
our location in this wilderness.

"Mr. Riggs performed the marriage ceremony, and Dr.
Williamson made the concluding prayer, and, through
Mr. Renville, briefly explained to the Dakotas the ordi
nance and its institution. After the ceremony, Mr.
Renville and family partook with us of our frugal meal,
leaving the Indians to enjoy their feast of potatoes, tur
nips, and bacon, to which the poor, the lame, and the blind
had been invited. As they were not aware of the supper
that was provided, they did not bring their dishes, as is
the Indian custom, so that they were scantily furnished
with milk-pans, etc. This deficiency they supplied very
readily by emptying the first course, which was potatoes,
into their blankets, and passing their dishes for a supply
of turnips and bacon.

" I know not when I have seen a group so novel as I
found on repairing to the room where these poor creatures
were promiscuously seated. On my left sat an old man
nearly blind ; before me, the woman who dipped out the
potatoes from a five-pail boiler sat on the floor ; and near
her was an old man dividing the bacon, clenching it
firmly in his hand, and looking up occasionally to see how
many there were requiring a share. In the corner sat a

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 57

lame man eagerly devouring his potatoes, and around
were scattered women and children.

" When the last ladle was filled from the large pot of
turnips, one by one they hastily departed, borrowing
dishes to carry home the supper, to divide with the chil
dren who had remained in charge of the tents."

CHAPTER III.

1837-1839. —The Language. —Its Growth. — System of Notation.

— After Changes. — What We Had to Put into the Language.

— Teaching English and Teaching Dakota. —Mary's Letter. —
Fort Renville. — Translating the Bible. — The Gospels of Mark
and John. — " Good Bird " Born. — Dakota Names. — The Les
sons We Learned. — Dakota Washing. — Extracts from Letters.

— Dakota Tents. — A Marriage. — Visiting the Village. —
Girls, Boys, and Dogs. — G. H. Pond's Indian Hunt. —Three
Families Killed. — The Village Wail. — The Power of a
Name. — Post-Office Far Away. — The Coming of the Mail.

— S. W. Pond Comes Up. — My Visit to Snelling. — Lost my
Horse. —Dr. Williamson Goes to Ohio. —The Spirit's Pres
ence. — Prayer. — Mary's Reports.

To learn an unwritten language, and to reduce it to a
form that can be seen as well as heard, is confessedly a
work of no small magnitude. Hitherto it has seemed to
exist only in sound. But it has been, all through the
past ages, worked out and up by the forges of human
hearts. It has been made to express the lightest thoughts
as well as the heart-throbs of men and women and chil
dren in their generations. The human mind, in its most
untutored state, is God's creation. It may not stamp
purity nor even goodness on its language, but it always,
I think, stamps it with the deepest philosophy. So far,
at least, language is of divine origin. The unlearned
Dakota may not be able to give any definition for any
single word that he has been using all his life-time, — he
may say, " It means that, and can't mean any thing else,"

58

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 59

— yet, all the while, in the mental workshop of the peo
ple, unconsciously and very slowly it may be, but no less
very surely, these words of air are newly coined. No
angle can turn up, but by and by it will be worn off by
use. No ungrammatical expression can come in that
will not be rejected by the best thinkers and speakers.
New words will be coined to meet the mind's wants;
and new forms of expression, which at the first are
bungling descriptions only, will be pared down and
tucked up so as to come into harmony with the living
language.

But it was no part of our business to make the Dakota
language. It was simply the missionary's work to report
it faithfully. The system of notation had in the main
been settled upon before Mary and I joined the mission.
It was, of course, to be phonetic, as nearly as possible.
The English alphabet was to be used as far as it could
be. These were the principles that guided and con
trolled the writing of Dakota. In their application it
was soon found that only five pure vowel sounds were
used. So far the work was easy. Then it was found
that x and v and r and g and j and f and c, with their
English powers, were not needed. But there were four
clicks and two gutturals and a nasal that must in some
way be expressed. It was then, even more than now, a
matter of pecuniary importance that the language to be
printed should require as few new characters as possi
ble. And so n was taken to represent the nasal ; q
represented one of- the clicks; g and r represented
the gutturals; and c and j and x were used to rep
resent ch, zh, and sh. The other clicks were rep
resented by marked letters. Since that time, some
changes have been made : x and r have been discarded

60 MARY AND I.

from the purely Dakota alphabet. In the Dakota gram
mar and dictionary, which was published fifteen years
afterward, an effort was made to make the notation phil
osophical, and accordant with itself. The changes which
have since been adopted have all been in the line of the
dictionary.

When we missionaries had gathered and expressed and
arranged the words of this language, what had we to put
into it, and what great gifts had we for the Dakota peo
ple? What will you give me? has always been their
cry. We brought to them the Word of Life, the Gospel
of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord, as
contained in the Bible. Not to preach Christ to them
only, that they might have life, but to engraft his living
words into their living thoughts, so that they might grow
into his spirit more and more, was the object of our
coming. The labor of writing the language was under
taken as a means to a greater end. To put God's
thoughts into their speech, and to teach them to read
in their own tongue the wonderful works of God, was
what brought us to the land of the Dakotas. But they
could not appreciate this. Ever and anon came the
question, What will you give me? And so, when we
would proclaim the " old, old story " to those proud
Dakota men at Lac-qui-parle, we had to begin with
kettles of boiled pumpkins, turnips, and potatoes. The
bread that perisheth could be appreciated — the Bread
of Life was still beyond their comprehension. But by
and by it was to find its proper nesting-place.

It was very fortunate for the work of education among
the Dakotas that it had such a stanch and influential
friend as Joseph Renville, Sr., of Lac-qui-parle. It was
never certainly known whether Mr. Renville could read

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 61

his French Bible or not. But he had seen so much of
the advantages of education among the white people,
that he greatly desired his own children should learn to
read and write, both in Dakota and English, and through
his whole life gave his influence in favor of Dakota edu
cation. Sarah Poage, afterward Mrs. G. H. Pond, had
come as a teacher, and had, from their first arrival at
Lac-qui-parle, been so employed. Mr. Renville had four
daughters, all of them young women, who had, with some
other half-breeds, made an English class. They had
learned to -read the language, but understood very little
of it, and were not willing to speak even what they
understood. All through these years the teaching of
English, commenced at the beginning of our mission
work, although found to be very difficult and not pro
ducing much apparent fruit, has never been abandoned.
But for the purposes of civilization, and especially of
Christianization, we have found culture in the native
tongue indispensable.

To teach the classes in English was in Mary's line of
life. She at once relieved Miss Poage of this part of her
work, and continued in it, with some intervals, for several
years. Often she was greatly tried, not by the inability
of her Dakota young lady scholars, but by their unwill
ingness to make such efforts as to gain the mastery of
English.

Teaching in Dakota was a different thing. It was their
own language. The lessons, printed with open type and
a brush on old newspapers, and hung round the walls of
the school-room, were words that had a meaning even to
.1 Dakota child. It was not difficult. A young man has
sometimes come in, proud and unwilling to be taught,
but, by sitting there and looking and listening to others,

02 MARY AND I.

he has started up with the announcement, " I am able."
Some small books had already been printed. Others
were afterward provided. But the work of works, which
in some sense took precedence of all others, was then
commencing, and has not yet been quite completed —
that of putting the Bible into the language of the
Dakotas.*

" Nov. 18, 1837.

" I make very slow progress in learning Dakota, and
could you hear the odd combinations of it with English
which we allow ourselves, you would doubtless be some
what amused, if not puzzled to guess our meaning, though
our speech would betray us, for the little Dakota we can
use we can not speak like the Indians. The peculiar tone
and ease are wanting, and several sounds I have been
entirely unable to make ; so that, in my case at least,
there would be ' shibboleths ' not a few. And these
cause the Dakota pupils to laugh very frequently when
I am trying to explain, or lead them to understand some
of the most simple things about arithmetic. Perhaps
you will think them impolite, and so should I if they had
been educated in a civilized land, but now I am willing
to bear with them, if I can teach them any thing in the
hour which is allotted for this purpose.

" As yet I have devoted no time to any except those
who are attempting to learn English, and my class will
probably consist of five girls and two or three boys.
Two of the boys, who, we hope, will learn English, are
full Dakotas, and, if their hearts were renewed, might be
very useful as preachers of the Gospel to their own
degraded people."

* Completed in 1879.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 63

Fort Renville, as it was sometimes called, was a
stockade, made for defence in case of an invasion by
the O jib was, who had been from time immemorial at
war with the Sioux. Inside of this stockade stood Mr.
Renviile's hewed-log house, consisting of a store-house
and two dwellings. Mr. Renville's reception-room was
of good size, with a large open fireplace, in which his
Frenchmen, or " French-boys," as they were called by
the Indians, piled up an enormous quantity of wood of a
cold day, setting it up on end, and thus making a fire to
be felt as well as seen. Here the chief Indian men of
the village gathered to smoke and talk. A bench ran
almost around the entire room, on which they sat or
reclined. Mr. Renville usually sat on a chair in the
middle of the room. He was a small man with rather
a long face and head developed upward. A favorite
position of his was to sit with his feet crossed under him
like a tailor. This room was the place of Bible trans
lating. Dr. Williamson and Mr. G. H. Pond had both
learned to read French. The former usually talked with
Mr. Renville in French, and, in the work of translating,
read from the French Bible, verse by verse. Mr. Ren
ville's memory had been specially cultivated by having
been much employed as interpreter between the Dakotas
and the French. It seldom happened that he needed to
have the verse re-read to him. But it often happened
that we, who wrote the Dakota from his lips, needed to
have it repeated in order that we should get it exactly
and fully. When the verse or sentence was finished, the
Dakota was read by one of the company. We were all
only beginners in writing the Dakota language, and I
more than the others. Sometimes Mr. Renville showed,
by the twinkle of his eye, his conscious superiority to us,

64 MARY AND I.

when he repeated a long and difficult sentence and found
that we had forgotten the beginning. But ordinarily
he was patient with us, and ready to repeat. By this
process, continued from week to week during that first
winter of ours at Lac-qui-parle, a pretty good translation
of the Gospel of Mark was completed, besides some fugi
tive chapters from other parts. In the two following win
ters the Gospel of John was translated in the same way.

Besides giving these portions of the Word of God to
the Dakotas sooner than it could have been done by the
missionaries alone, these translations were invaluable to
us as a means of studying the structure of the language,
and as determining, in advance of our own efforts in this
line, the forms or moulds of many new ideas which the
Word contains. In after years we always felt safe in
referring to Mr. Renville as authority in regard to the
form of a Dakota expression.

During this first year that Mary and I spent in the
Dakota country, there were coming to us continually new
experiences. One of the most common, and yet one of
the most thrilling and abiding, was in the birth of our
first-born. In motherhood and fatherhopd are found
large lessons in life. The mother called her first-born
child Alfred Longley, naming him for a very dear brother
of hers. The Dakotas named this baby boy of ours Good
Bird (Zitkadan Washtay). They said that it was a good
name. In those days it was a habit with them to give
names to the white people who came among them. Dr.
Williamson they called Payjehoota Wechasta — Medicine
man, or, more literally, Grass-root man — that is, Doctor.
To Mr. G. H. Pond they gave the name Matohota,
Grizzly-bear. Mr. S. W. Pond was Wamdedoota^ Red-

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 65

eagle. To me they gave the name of Tamakoche, His
country. They said some good Dakota long ago had
borne that name. To Mary they gave the name of Pa-
yuha. At first they gutturalized the h, which made it
mean Curly-head — her black hair did curl a good deal ;
but afterward they naturalized the h, and said it meant
Hamng-a-head.

The winter as it passed by had other lessons for us.
For me it was quite a chore to cut and carry up wood
enough to keep our somewhat open upper room cosey and
comfortable. Mary had more ambition than I had to get
native help. She had not been accustomed to do a day's
washing. It came hard to her. The other women of the
mission preferred to wash for themselves rather than
train natives to do it. And indeed, at the beginning,
that was found to be no easy task. For, in the first place,
Dakota women did not wash. Usually they put on a
garment and wore it until it rotted off. This was pretty
much the rule. No good, decent woman could be found
willing to do for white people what they did not do for
themselves. We could hire all the first women of the
village to hoe corn or dig potatoes, but not one would
take hold of the wash-tub. And so it was that Mary's
first washer-women were of the lowest class, and not very
reputable characters. But she persevered and conquered.
Only a few years had passed when the wash-women of
the mission were of the best women of the village. And
the effort proved a great public benefaction. The gos
pel of soap was indeed a necessary adjunct and out
growth of the Gospel of Salvation.

u Dec. 13.

" My first use of the pen since the peculiar manifesta
tion of God's loving kindness we have so recently

66 MARY AND I.

experienced shall be for you, my dear parents. That
you will with us bless the Lord, as did the Psalmist in
one of my favorite Psalms, the 103d, we do not doubt ;
for I am sure you will regard my being able so soon to
write as a proof of God's tender mercy. I have been
very comfortable most of the time during the past week.
As our little one cries, and I am now his chief nurse, I
must lay aside my pen and paper and attend to his
wants, for Mr. Riggs is absent, procuring, with Dr. W.
and Mr. Pond, the translation of Mark, from Mr. Ren-
ville."

''Dec. 28.

" Yesterday our dear little babe was three wreeks old.
I washed with as little fatigue as I could expect ; still, I
should have thought it right to have employed some one,
was there any one to be employed who could be trusted.
But the Dakota women, besides not knowing how to
wash, need constant and vigilant watching. Poor crea
tures, thieves from habit, and from a kind of necessity,
though one of their own creating ! "

" Jan. 10.

" The Dakota tent is formed of buffalo skins, stretched
on long poles placed on the ground in a circle, and
meeting at the top, where a hole is left from which the
smoke of the fire in the centre issues. Others are made
of bark tied to the poles placed in a similar manner. A
small place is left for a door of skin stretched on sticks
and hinged with strings at the top, so that the person
entering raises it from the bottom and crawls in. At
this season of the year the door is protected by a covered
passage formed by stakes driven into the ground several
feet apart, and thatched with grass. Here they keep
their wood, which the women cut this cold weather, the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 67

thermometer at eighteen to twenty degrees below zero.
And should you lift the little door, you would find a cold,
smoky lodge about twelve feet in diameter, a mother and
her child, a blanket or two, or a skin, a kettle, and pos
sibly in some of them a sack of corn."

" Thursday Eve., Jan. 11.

"Quite unexpectedly, this afternoon we received an
invitation to a wedding at Mr. Renville's, one of his
daughters marrying a Frenchman. We gladly availed
ourselves of an ox-sled, the only vehicle we could com
mand, and a little before three o'clock we were in the
guest-chamber. Mr. Renville, who is part Dakota, re
ceived us with French politeness, and soon after the rest
of the family entered. These, with several Dakota men
and women seated on benches, or on the floor around the
room, formed not an uninteresting group. The marriage
ceremony was in French and Dakota, and was soon over.
Then the bridegroom rose, shook hands with his wife's
relations, and kissed her mother, and the bride also kissed
all her father's family.

" When supper was announced as ready, we repaired
to a table amply supplied with beef and mutton, potatoes,
bread, and tea. Though some of them were not prepared
as they would have been in the States, they did not
seem so singular as a dish that I was unable to determine
what it could be, until an additional supply of blood was
offered me. I do not know how it was cooked, though
it might have been fried with pepper and onions, and I
am told it is esteemed as very good. The poor Indians
throw nothing away, whether of beast or bird, but
consider both inside and outside delicious broiled on the
coals."

68 MARY AND I.

"April 5.

"Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Pond and myself walked
to * the lodges.' As the St. Peter's now covers a large
part of the bottom, we wound our way in the narrow
Indian path on the side of the hill. An Indian woman,
with her babe fastened upon its board at her back,
walked before us, and as the grass on each side of the
foot-path made it uncomfortable walking side by side,
we conformed to Dakota custom, one following the other.
For a few moments we kept pace with our guide, but she,
soon outstripping us, turned a corner and was out of
sight. As we wished for a view of the lake and river,
we climbed the hill. There we saw the St. Peter's, which
in the summer is a narrow and shallow stream, extending
over miles of land, with here and there a higher spot
peeping out as an island in the midst of the sea. The
haze prevented our having a good view of the lake.

" After counting thirty lodges stretched along below
us, we descended and entered one, where we found a sick
woman, who said she had not sat up for a long time,
lying on a little bundle of hay. Another lodge we found
full of corn, the owners having subsisted on deer and
other game while absent during the winter.

" When we had called at Mr. Renville's, which was a
little beyond, we returned through the heart of the vil
lage, attended by such a retinue as I have never before
seen, and such strange intermingling of laughing and
shouting of children and barking of dogs as I never
heard. Amazed, and almost deafened by the clamor, I
turned to gaze upon the unique group. Some of the
older girls were close upon our heels, but as we stopped
they also halted, and those behind slackened their pace.
Boys and girls of from four to twelve years of age, some

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 69

wrapped in their blankets, more without, and quite a
number of boys almost or entirely destitute of clothing,
with a large number of dogs of various sizes and colors,
presented themselves in an irregular line. As all of the
Indians here have pitched their lodges together, I sup
pose there might have been thirty or forty children in
our train. When we reached home, I found little Alfred
happy and quiet, in the same place on the bed I had left
him more than two hours previous, his father having been
busy studying Dakota.

" This evening two Indian women came and sat a little
while in our happy home. One of them had a babe
about the age of Alfred. You would have smiled to see
the plump, undressed child peeping out from its warm
blanket like a little unfledged bird from its mossy nest."

Mr. Pond had long been yearning to see inside of an
Indian. He had been wanting to be an Indian, if only
for half an hour, that he might know how an Indian felt
and by what motives he could be moved. And so when
the early spring of 1838 came, and the ducks began to
come northward, a half-dozen families started out from
Lac-qui-parle to hunt and trap on the upper part of the
Chippewa River, in the neighborhood of where is now
the town of Benson, in Minnesota. Mr. Pond went with
them, and was gone two weeks. It was in the first of
April, and the streams were flooded, and the water was
cold. There should have been enough of game easily
obtained to feed the party well. So the Indians thought.
But it did not prove so. A cold spell came on, the ducks
disappeared, and Mr. Pond and his Indian hunters were
reduced to scanty fare, and sometimes to nothing, for a
whole day. But Mr. Pond was seeing inside of Indians,

70 MARY AND I.

and was quite willing to starve a good deal in the pro
cess. However, his stay with them, and their hunt for
that time as well, was suddenly terminated.

It appears that during the winter some rumors of peace
visits from the Ojibwas had reached the Dakotas, so that
this hunting party were somewhat prepared to meet
Ojibwas who should come with this announced purpose.
The half-dozen teepees had divided. Mr. Pond was with
Round Wind, who had removed from the three teepees
that remained. On Thursday evening there came Hole-
in-the-day, an Ojibwa chief, with ten men. They had
come to smoke the peace-pipe, they said. The three
Dakota tents contained but three men and ten or eleven
women and children. But, while starving themselves,
they would entertain their visitors in the most royal style.
Two dogs were killed and they were feasted, and then all
lay down to rest. But the Ojibwas were false. They
arose at midnight and killed their Dakota hosts. In the
morning but one woman and a boy remained alive of the
fourteen in the three teepees the night before, and the
boy was badly wounded. It was a cowardly act of the
Ojibwas, and one that was terribly avenged afterward.
When Mr. Pond had helped to bury the dead and man
gled remains of these three families, he started for home,
and was the first to bring the sad news to their friends
at Lac-qui-parle. To him quite an experience was bound
up in those two weeks, and the marvel was, why he was
not then among the slain. To Mary and me it opened a
whole store-house of instruction, as we listened to the
wail of the whole village, and especially when the old
women came with dishevelled heads and ragged clothes,
and cried and sang around our house, and begged in the
name of our first-born. We discovered all at once the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 71

power of a name. And if an earthly name has such
power, much more the Name that is above every name —
much more the Name of the Only Begotten of the heav
enly Father.

Lac-qui-parle was in those days much shut out from
the great world. We were two hundred miles away
from our post-office at Fort Snelling. We seldom re
ceived a letter from Massachusetts or Ohio in less than
three months after it was written. Often it was much
longer, for there were several times during our stay at
Lac-qui-parle when we passed three months, and once
five months, without a mail. We used to pray that the
mail would not come in the evening. If it did, good-
by sleep ! If it came in the early part of the day, we
could look it over and become quieted by night. Our
communication with the post-office was generally through
the men engaged in the fur-trade. Some of them had no
sympathy with us as missionaries, but they were ever will
ing to do us a favor as men and Americans. Sometimes
we sent and received our mail by Indians. That was a
very costly way. The postage charged by the govern
ment — although it was then twenty-five cents on a letter
— was no compensation for a Dakota in those days. It
is fortunate for them that they have learned better the
value of work.

Once a year, at least, it seemed best that one of our
selves should go down to the mouth of the Minnesota.
Our annual supplies were to be brought up, and various
matters of business transacted. I was sent down in the
spring of 1838, and I considered myself fortunate in
having the company of Rev. S. W. Pond. This was Mr.
Pond's second visit to Lac-qui-parle on foot. The first

72 MARY AND I.

was made over two years before, in midwinter. That
was a fearful journey. What with ignorance of the
country, and deep snows, and starvation, and an ugly
Indian for his guide, Mr. Pond came near reaching the
spirit land before he came to Lac-qui-parle.

This second time he came under better auspices, and,
having spent several weeks with us, during which many
questions of interest with regard to the language and the
mission work were discussed, he and I made a part of
Mr. Renville's caravan to the fur depot of the American
Fur Company at Mendota, in charge of H. H. Sibley, a
manly man, since that time occupying a prominent posi
tion in Minnesota.

To make this trip I was furnished by the mission with
a valuable young horse, gentle and kind, but not pos
sessed of much endurance. At any rate, he took sick
while I was away, and never reached home. The result
may have been owing a good deal to my want of skill in
taking care of horses, and in travelling through the bogs
and quagmires of this new country. I could not but be
profoundly sorry when obliged to leave him, as it entailed
upon me other hardships for which I was not well pre
pared. Reaching the Traverse des Sioux on foot, I found
Joseph R. Brown, even then an old Indian trader, coming
up with some led horses. He kindly gave me the use of
two with which to bring up my loaded cart. That was a
really Good Samaritan work, which I have always re
membered with gratitude.

When the first snows were beginning to fall in the
coming winter, and not till then, Dr. Williamson was
ready to make his trip to Ohio. The Gospel of Mark
and some smaller portions of the Bible he had prepared
for the press. The journey was undertaken a few weeks

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 73

too late, and so it proved a very hard one. They thought
to go down the Mississippi in a Mackinaw boat, but were
frozen in before they reached Lake Pepin. From that
point the entire journey to Ohio was made by land in the
rigors of winter.

The leaving of Dr. Williamson entailed upon me the
responsibility of taking care of the Sabbath service. Mr.
G. H. Pond was not then a minister of the Gospel, but
his superior knowledge of the Dakota fitted him the best
to communicate religious instruction. But it was well
for me to have the responsibility, as it helped me in
the use of the native tongue. I was often conscious
of making mistakes, and doubtless made many that
I knew not of. Mr. Pond and Mr. Renville were
ever ready to help me out, and, moreover, we had
with us that winter Rev. Daniel Gavan, one of the
Swiss missionaries, who had settled on the Mississippi
River, at Red Wing and Wabashaw's villages. Mr.
G. came up to avail himself of the better advantages
in learning the language, and so for the winter he was
a valuable helper.

It pleased God to make this winter one of fruitfulness.
Mr. Renville was active in persuading those under his
influence to attend the religious meetings, the school
room was crowded on Sabbaths, and the Word, imper
fectly as it was spoken, was used by the Spirit upon
those dark minds. There was evidently a quickening of
the church. They were interested in prayer. What is
prayer ? — and how shall we pray ? became questions of
interest with them. One woman who had received at
her baptism the name of Catherine, and who still lives a
believing life at the end of forty years, was then troubled
to know how prayer could reach God. I told her in this

74 MARY AND I.

we were all little children. God recognized our condi
tion in this respect, and had told us that, as earthly
fathers and mothers were willing, and desirous of giving
good gifts to their children, he was more willing to give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Besides, he made
the ear, and shall he not hear? He made, in a large
sense, all language, and shall he not be able to under
stand Dakota words? The very word for "pray " in the
Dakota language was " to cry to " — chakiya. Prayer
was now, as through all ages it had been, the child's cry
in the ear of the Great Father. So there appeared to be
a working upward of many hearts. Early in February
Mr. Pond, Mr. Renville, and Mr. Huggins, Mr. Gavan and
myself, after due examination and instruction, agreed to
receive ten Dakotas into the church — all women. I bap
tized them and their children — twenty-eight in all — on
one Sabbath morning. It was to us a day of cheer. To
these Dakota Gentiles also God had indeed opened the
door of faith. Blessed be his name for ever and ever.

" Dec. 6, 1838.

" This is our little Alfred's natal day. He of course
has received no birthday sugar or earthen toys, and his
only gift of such a kind has been a very small bow and
arrow, from an Indian man, who is a frequent visitor.
The bow is about three-eighths of a yard long and quite
neatly made, but Alfred uses it as he would any other
little stick. I do not feel desirous that he should prize a
bow or a gun as do these sons of the prairie. My prayer
is that he may early become a lamb of the Good Shep
herd's fold, that while he lives he may be kept from the
fierce wolf and hungry lion, and at length be taken home
to the green pastures and still waters above."

FOBTY TEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 75

" Feb. 9, 1839.

" We mentioned in our last encouraging prospects here.
The forenoon schools, which are for misses and children,
have some days been crowded during the few past weeks,
and a Sabbath-school recently opened has been so well
attended as to encourage our hopes of blessed results.
Last Lord's day we had a larger assembly than have ever
before met for divine worship in this heathen land. More
than eighty were present."

As Mr. Gavan was a native Frenchman and a scholar,
we expected much from his presence with us, during the
winter, in the way of obtaining translations. He and
Mr. Renville could communicate fully and freely through
that language, and we believed he would be able to ex
plain such words as were not well understood by the
other. And so we commenced the translation of the
Gospel of John from the French. But it soon became
apparent that the perfection of knowledge, of which they
both supposed themselves possessed, was a great bar to
progress. And by the time we had reached the end of
the seventh chapter, the relations of the two Frenchmen
were such as to entirely stop our work. We were quite
disappointed. But this event induced us the sooner to
o-ird ourselves for the work of translating the Bible from
the original tongues, and so was, in the end, a blessing.

CHAPTER IV.

1838-1840. — " Eagle Help." — His Power as War Prophet —
Makes No-Flight Dance. — We Pray Against It. — Unsuccess
ful on the War-Path. — Their Revenge. — Jean Nicollet and
J. C. Fremont. — Opposition to Schools. — Progress in Teach
ing. — Method of Counting. — " Lake That Speaks." — Our
Trip to Fort Snelling. — Incidents of the Way. — The Changes
There. — Our Return Journey. — Birch-Bark Canoe. — Mary's
Story. — "Le Grand Canoe." — Baby Born on the Way. —
Walking Ten Miles. — Advantages of Travel. — My Visit to
the Missouri River. — " Fort Pierre." —Results.

"EAGLE HELP" was a good specimen of a war prophet
and war leader among the Dakotas. At the time of the
commencement of the mission, he was a man of family
and in middle age, but he was the first man to learn to
read and write his language. And from the very first,
no one had clearer apprehensions of the advantages of
that attainment. He soon became one of the best helps
in studying the Dakota, and the best critical helper in
translations. He wanted good pay for a service, but lie
was ever ready to do it, and always reliable. When my
horse failed me, on the trip up from Fort Snelling, and I
had walked fifty miles, Eagle Help was ready, for a con
sideration (my waterproof coat), to go on foot and bring
up the baggage I had left. And in the early spring of
1839, when Mr. Pond would remove his family — wife
and child — to join his brother in the work near Fort
Snelling, Eagle Help was the man to pilot his canoe
down the Minnesota.

76

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 77

But, notwithstanding his readiness to learn and to
impart, to receive help and give help — notwithstand
ing his knowledge of the " new way," of which his wife
was a follower, and his near relations to us in our mis
sionary work, he did not, at once, abandon his Dakota
customs, one of which was going on the war-path.

As a war prophet, he claimed to be able to get into
communication with the spirit world, and thus to be
made a seer. After fasting and praying and dancing the
circle dance, a vision of the enemies he sought to kill
would come to him. He was made to see, in this trance
or dream, whichever it might be, the whole panorama,
the river or lake, the prairie or wood, and the Ojibwas in
canoes or on the land, and the spirit in the vision said to
him, "Up, Eagle Help, and kill." This vision and proph
ecy had heretofore never failed, he said.

And so, when he came back from escorting Mr. Gavan
and Mr. Pond to the Mississippi River, he determined to
get up a war party. He made his " yoomne wachepe "
(circle dance), in which the whole village participated —
he dreamed his dream, he saw his vision, and was confi
dent of a successful campaign. About a score of young
men painted themselves for the war; they fasted and
feasted and drilled by dancing the no-flight dance, and
made their hearts firm by hearing the brave deeds of
older warriors, who were now hors de combat by age.

In the meantime, the thought that our good friend
Eagle Help should lead out a war party to kill and man
gle Ojibwa women and children greatly troubled us. We
argued and entreated, but our words were not heeded.
Among other things, we said we would pray that the war
party might not be successful. That was too much of a
menace. Added to this, they came and asked MI*. Hug-

78 MAEY AND I.

gins to grind corn for them on our little ox-power mill,
which he refused to do. They were greatly enraged,
and, just before they started out, they killed and ate two
of the mission cows. After a rather long and difficult
tramp they returned without having seen an Ojibwa.
Their failure they attributed entirely to our prayers, and
so, as they returned ashamed, they took off the edge of
their disgrace by killing another of our unoffending ani
mals.

After this, it was some months before Eagle Help
would again be our friend and helper. In the meantime,
Dr. Williamson and his family returned from Ohio,
bringing with them Miss Fanny Huggins, to be a teacher
in the place of Mrs. Pond. Miss Huggins afterward
became Mrs. Jonas Pettijohn, and both she and her hus
band were for many years valuable helpers in the mission
work. Also this summer brought to Lnc-qui-parle such
distinguished scientific gentlemen as M. Jean Nicollet
and J. C. Fremont. M. Nicollet took an interest in our
war difficulty, and of his own motion made arrangements
in behalf of the Indians to pay for the mission cattle
destroyed. And so that glory and that shame were alike
forgotten. In after years Eagle Help affirmed that his
power of communicating with the spirit world as a war
prophet was destroyed by his knowledge of letters and
the religion of the Bible. Shall we accept that as true ?
And, if so, what shall we say of modern spiritism ? Is it
in accord with living a true Christian life?

Thus events succeeded each other rapidly. But Mary
and I and the baby boy, " Good Bird," lived still in the
" upper chamber," and were not ashamed to invite the
French savant, Jean Nicollet, to come and take tea
with us.

FOKTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 79

During these first years of missionary work at Lac-qui-
parle, the school was well attended. It was only once in
a while that the voice of opposition was raised against
the children. Occasionally some one would come up
from below and tell about the fight that was going on
there against the Treaty appropriation for Education.

The missionaries down there were charged with want
ing to get hold of the Indians' money ; and so the pro
vision for education made by the treaty of 1837 effectu
ally blocked all efforts at teaching among those lower
Sioux. What should have been a help became a great
hindrance. Indians and traders joined to oppose the use
of that fund for the purpose for which it was intended,
and finally the government yielded and turned over the
accumulated money to be distributed among themselves.
The Wahpatons of Lac-qui-parle had no interest in that
treaty ; and had yet made no treaty with the government
and had not a red cent of money anywhere that mission
aries could, by any hook or crook, lay hold of. Neverthe
less it was easy to get up a fear and belief ; for was it
possible that white men and women would come here
and teach year after year, and not expect, in some way
and at some time, to get money out of them ? If they
ever made a treaty, and sold land to the government,
would not the missionaries bring in large bills against
them ? It was easy to work up this matter in their own
minds, and make it all seem true, and the result was
the soldiers were ordered to stop the children from
coming to school. There were some such moods as this,
and our school had a vacation. But the absurdity ap
peared pretty soon, and the children were easily induced
to come back.

Mr, and Mrs. Pond were now gone. For the next

80 MARY AND I.

winter, Mary and Miss Fanny Huggins took care of the
girls and younger boys, and Mr. Huggins, with such
assistance as I could give, took care of the boys and
young men. The women also undertook, under the
instruction of Mrs. Huggins and Miss Fanny, to spin and
knit and weave. Mr. Renville had already among his
flock some sheep. The wool was here and the flax was
soon grown. Spinning-wheels and knitting-needles were
brought on, and Mr. Huggins manufactured a loom.
They knit socks and stockings, and wove skirts and
blankets, while the little girls learned to sew patchwrork
and make quilts. All this was of advantage as
education.

My own special effort in the class-room during the first
years was in teaching a knowledge of figures. The lan
guage of counting in Dakota was limited. The " wan-
cha, nonpa, yamne " — one, two, three, up to ten, — every
child learned, as he bent down his fingers and thumbs
until all were gathered into two bunches, and then let
them loose as geese flying away. Eleven was ten more
one, and so on. Twenty was ten twos or twice ten, and
thirty ten threes. With each ten the fingers were all
bent down, and one was kept down to remember the ten.
Thus, when ten tens were reached, the whole of the two
hands was bent down, each finger meaning ten. This
was the perfected " bending down." It was " opawinge "
— one hundred. Then, when the hands were both bent
down for hundreds, the climax was supposed to be
reached, which could only be expressed by " again also
bending dowrn." When something larger than this was
reached, it was a great count — something which they
nor we can comprehend — a million.

On the other side of one the Dakota language is still

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 81

more defective. Only one word of any definiteness
exists — hankay, half. We can say hankay-hankay — the
half of a half. But it does not seem to have been much
used. Beyond this there was nothing. A piece is a word
of uncertain quantity, and is not quite suited to intro
duce among the certainties of mathematics. Thus, the
poverty of the language has been a great obstacle in
teaching arithmetic. And that poorness of language
shows their poverty of thought in the same line. The
Dakotas are not, as a general thing, at all clever in
arithmetic.

Before the snows had disappeared or the ducks come
back to this northern land, in the spring of 1840, a baby
girl had been added to the little family in the upper
chamber. By the first of June, Mary was feeling well,
and exceedingly anxious to make a trip across the prairie.
She had been cooped up here now nearly three years.
There was nowhere to go. Lac-qui-parle is the " Lake
that speaks," but who could be found around it ? And
no one had any knowledge of any great Indian talk
held there that might have justified the name. But the
romance was all taken out of the French name by the
criticism of Eagle Help, that the Dakota name, " Mda-
eyaydan," did not mean " Lake that talks," but " Lake
that connects." And so Lac-qui-parle had no historic
interest. It was not a good place to go on a picnic.
She had been to the Indian village frequently, but that
was not a place to visit for pleasure. And on the broad
prairie there was no objective point. Where could she
go for a pleasure trip, but to Fort Snelling ?

And so we made arrangements for the journey. The
little boy " Good Bird " was left behind, and the baby

82 MARY AND I.

Isabella had to go along, of course. We were with Mr.
Renville's annual caravan going to the fur-trader's
Mecca.

The prairie journey was pleasant and enjoyable, though
somewhat fatiguing. We had our own team and could
easily keep in company with the long line of wooden
carts, carrying buffalo robes and other furs. It was,
indeed, rather romantic. But when we reached the
Traverse des Sioux, we were at our wit's end how to
proceed further. That was the terminus of the wagon-
road. It was then regarded as absolutely impossible to
take any wheeled vehicle through by land to Fort
Snelling. Several years after this we began to do it,
but it was very difficult. Then it was not to be tried.
Mr. Sibley's fur boat, it was expected, would have been
at the Traverse, but it was not. And a large canoe
which was kept there had gotten loose and floated away.
Only a little crazy canoe, carrying two persons, was
found to cross the stream with. Nothing remained but
to abandon the journey or to try it on horseback. And
for that not a saddle of any kind could be obtained.
But Mary was a plucky little woman. She did not
mean to use the word " fail " if she could help it. And
so we tied our buffalo robe and blanket on one of the
horses, and she mounted upon it, with a rope for a
stirrup. Many a young woman would have been at
home there, but Mary had not grown up on horseback.
And so at the end of a dozen miles, when we came to
the river where Le Sueur now is, she was very glad to
learn that the large canoe had been found. In that she
and baby Isabella took passage with Mr. Renville's girls
and an Indian woman or two to steer and paddle. The
rest of the company went on by land, managing to meet

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. Od

the boat at night and camp together. This we did for
the next four nights. It was a hard journey for Mary.
The current was not swift. The canoe was heavy and
required hard paddling to make it move onward. The
Dakota young women did not care to work, and their
helm's-woman was not in a condition to do it. On the
fourth day out they ran ashore somewhat hurriedly and
put up their tent, where the woman pilot gave birth to
a baby girl. They named it " By-the-way." One day
they came in very hungry to an Indian village. The
Dakota young women were called to a tent to eat sugar.
Then Mary thought they might have called " the white
woman " also, but they did not. She did not consider
that they were relatives.

By and by the mouth of the Minnesota was reached,
through hardship and endurance. But then it was to be
" a pleasure trip," and this was the way in which the
pleasure came.

Since we had last seen him, S. W. Pond had married
Miss Cordelia Eggleston, a sister of Mrs. J. D. Stevens.
The station at Lake Harriet had been abandoned, the
Indians having left Lake Calhoun first. Mr. Stevens
had gone down to Wabashaw's village, and the Pond
brothers, with their families, were occupying what was
called the " Stone House," within a mile of the Fort.
Mary found an old school friend in the garrison, and so
the two weeks spent in this neighborhood were pleasant
and profitable.

We now addressed ourselves to the return journey.
The fur boat had gone up and come down again. We
were advised to try a birch-bark canoe, and hire a couple
of French voyagers to row it. In the first part of the
river we went along nicely. But after a while we began

84 MARY AND I.

to meet with accidents. The strong arms of the paddlers
would ever and anon push the canoe square on a snag.
The next thing to be done was to haul ashore and mend
the boat. By and by our mending material was all used
up. It was Saturday morning, and we could reach
Traverse that day if we met with no mishap. But we
did meet with a mishap. Suddenly we struck a snag
which tore such a hole in our bark craft that it was with
difficulty we got ashore. By land, it was eight or ten
miles to the Traverse. The Frenchmen were sent on for
a cart to bring up the baggage. But rather than wait
for them, Mary and I elected to walk and carry baby
Bella. To an Indian woman that would have been a
mere trifle — not worth speaking of. But to me it
meant work. I had no strap to tie her on my back, and
the little darling seemed to get heavier every mile we
went. But, then, Mary had undertaken the trip for
pleasure, and so we must not fail to find in it all the
pleasure we could. And we did it. Altogether, that
trip to Fort Snelling was a thing to be remembered and
not regretted.

" FORT SNELLING, June 19, 1840.

" We left Lac-qui-parle June 1, and reached Le Bland 's
the Saturday following, having enjoyed as pleasant a
journey across the prairie as we could expect or hope.
We had expected to find at that place a barge, but we
could not even procure an Indian canoe. With no other
alternative, we mounted our horses on Monday, with no
other saddles than our baggage. Mine was a buffalo robe
and blanket fastened with a trunk strap. My spirits sank
within me as I gave our little Isabella to an Indian woman

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 85

to carry perched up in a blanket behind, and clung to my
horse's mane as we ascended and descended the steep
hills, and thought a journey of seventy miles by land was
before us.

" I rode thus nearly ten miles, and then walked a short
distance to rest myself, to the place where our company
took lunch. There, to our great joy, a Frenchman ex
claimed, " Le grand canoe, le grand canoe ! " and we found
that the Indian who had been commissioned to search
had found and brought it down the river thus far. I
gladly exchanged my seat on the horse for one in the
canoe, with two Indian women and Mr. Renville's daugh
ters. Our progress was quite comfortable, though slow,
as some of our party were invited to Indian lodges to
feast occasionally, while the rest of us were sunning by
the river's bank.

"On the fourth day we had an addition to our party.
The woman at the helm said she was sick — and we went
on shore perhaps three-quarters of an hour on account of
the rain, and when it ceased, she was ready with her
infant to step into the canoe and continue rowing,
although she did not resume her seat in the stern
until the next morning. This is a specimen of Indian
life.

" We have found Dr. and Mrs. Turner in the garrison
here ; she was formerly Mary Stuart of Mackinaw.

" TRAVERSE DES Sioux, July 4.

"The canoe (birch-bark) which we praised so highly
failed us about eight miles below this place, in conse
quence of not having a supply of gum to mend a large
rent made by a snag early this morning. Not thinking it
was quite so far, I chose to try walking, husband carrying

86 MAKY AND I.

Isabella, the Frenchmen having hastened on to find our
horses to bring up the baggage. We reached the river
and found there was no boat here with which to cross.
Mr. Riggs waded with Isabella, the water being about
two and a half feet deep, and an Indian woman came to
carry me over, when our horses were brought up. Hus
band mounted without any saddle, and I, quivering like
an aspen, seated myself behind, clinging so tightly that
I feared I should pull us both off. I do not think it was
fear, at least not entirely, for I am still exceedingly
fatigued and dizzy, but I have reason to be grateful that
I did not fall into the river from faintness, as husband
thought I was in danger of doing. Isabella's face is
nearly blistered, and mine almost as brown as an Ind
ian's."

" LAC-QUI-PARLE MISSION, July 27, 1840.
" We are once more in the quiet enjoyment of home,
and are somewhat rested from the fatigue of our journey.
The repetition of that parental injunction, ' Mary, do be
careful of your health,' recalled your watchful care most
forcibly. How often have I heard these words, and per
haps too often have regarded them less strictly than an
anxious mother deemed necessary for my highest welfare.
And even now, were it not that the experience of a few
years may correct my notions about health, I should be
so unfashionable as to affirm that necessary exposures,
such as sleeping on the prairie in a tent drenched with
rain, and walking some two or three miles in the dewy
grass, where the water would gush forth from our shoes
at every step, and then continuing our walk until they
were more than comfortably dry, as we did on the morn
ing our canoe failed us, are not as injurious to the health
as the unnecessary exposures of fashionable life,"

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 87

The Sioux on the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers
were known to be but a small fraction of the Dakota
people. We at Lac-qui-parle had frequent intercourse
with the Sissetons of Lake Traverse. Sometimes, too,
we had visits from the Yanktonais, who followed the
buffalo on the great prairies this side of the Missouri
River. But more than half of the Sioux nation were
said to be Teetons, who lived beyond the Big Muddy.
So it seemed very desirable that we extend our acquaint
ance among them.

About the first of September, Mr. Huggins and I, hav
ing prepared ourselves with a small outfit, started for the
Missouri. We had one pony for the saddle, and one
horse and cart to carry the baggage. At first we joined
a party of wild Sioux from the Two Woods, whose leader
was " Thunder Face." He was a great scamp, but had
promised to furnish us with guides to the Missouri, after
we had reached the Coteau. The party were going out
to hunt buffalo, and moved by short days' marches. In
a week we had only made fifty miles. After some vexa
tious delays and some coaxing and buying, we succeeded
in getting started ahead with two young men, the princi
pal one being "Sacred Cow." The first day brought us
into the region of buffalo, one of which Sacred Cow
killed. This came near spoiling our journey. The young
men now wanted to turn about and join the hunt. An
additional bargain had to be made. In about two weeks
from Lac-qui-parle we reached the Missouri, striking it
near Fort Pierre. To this trading fort we crossed, and
there spent a good part of a week. Forty or fifty
teepees of Teetons were encamped there. They treated
us kindly (inviting us to a dog feast on one occasion), as
did also the white people and half-breeds of the post.

88 MAKY AND I.

We gathered a good deal of information in regard to the
western bands of the Sioux nation ; we communicated to
them something of the object of our missionary work,
and of the good news of salvation, and then returned
home pretty nearly by the way we went. We had been
gone a month. The result of our visit was the conclusion
that we could not do much, or attempt much, for the
civilization and Christianization of those roving bands of
Dakotas.

CHAPTER V.

1840-1843. — Dakota Braves. — Simon Anawangmane. — Mary's
Letter. — Simon's Fall. — Maple Sugar. — Adobe Church. —
Catharine's Letter. — Another Letter of Mary's. — Left Hand's
Case. — The Fifth Winter. —Mary to Her Brother. — The
Children's Morning Ride. — Visit to Hawley and Ohio. —
Dakota Printing. — New Recruits. — Return. — Little Rapids.
— Traverse des Sioux. — Stealing Bread. — Forming a New
Station. — Begging. — Opposition. — Thomas L. Longley. —
Meeting Ojibwas. — Two Sioux Killed. — Mary's Hard Walk.

AMONG the encouraging events of 1840 and 1841 was
the conversion of Simon Anawangmane. He was the
first full-blood Dakota man to come out on the side of
the new religion. Mr. Renville and his sons had joined
the church, but the rest were women. It came to be a
taunt that the men used when we talked with them and
asked them to receive the gospel, " Your church is made
up of women " ; and, " If you had gotten us in first, it
would have amounted to something, but now there are
only women. Who would follow after women ? " Thus
the proud Dakota braves turned away.

But God's truth has sharp arrows in it, and the Holy
Spirit knows how to use them in piercing even Dakota
hearts.

Anaicangmane (walks galloping on) was at this time
not far from thirty years old. He was not a bright schol
ar — rather dull and slow in learning to read. But he

89

90 MARY AND I.

had a very strong will-power and did not know what fear
was. He had been a very dare-devil on the war-path.
The Dakotas had a curious custom of being under law and
above law. It was always competent for a Dakota sol
dier to punish another man for a misdemeanor, if the
other man did not rank above him in savage prowess. As
for example : If a Dakota man had braved an Ojibwa
with a loaded gun pointed at him, and had gone up and
killed him, he ranked above all men who had not done a
like brave deed. And if no one in the community had
done such an act of bravery, then this man could not be
punished for any thing, according to Dakota custom.

Under date of Feb. 24, 1841, Mary writes : — "Last
Sabbath was Isabella's birthday. She has been a healthy
child, for which we have cause of gratitude. But this
was not our only, or principal, cause of joy on last Sab
bath. Five adults received the baptismal rite prepara
tory to the celebration of the Lord's Supper on next Sab
bath. One of them was a man, the first in the nation —
a full-blooded Sioux, that has desired to renounce all for
Christ. May God enable him to adorn his profession.
His future life will doubtless exert a powerful influence
either for or against Christ's cause here. Three years
since he was examined by the church session, but then he
acknowledged that the 6th and 7th commandments were
too broad in their restrictions for him. Now he professes
a desire and determination to keep them also. His wife,
whom he is willing to marry, with her child, and three
children by two other wives he has had, stood with him,
and at the same time received the seal of the new cove
nant. As they all wished English names, we gave
' Hetta ' to a white, gray-eyed orphan girl who was bap
tized, on account of her grandmother,"

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 91

This young man, Anawangmane, had reached that en
viable position of being above Dakota law. He had not
only attained to the " first three," but he was the chief.
And so when he came out on the side of the Lord and
Christianity, there was a propriety in calling him Simon
when he was baptized. He was ordinarily a quiet man
— a man of deeds and not of words. But once in a while
he would get roused up, and his eyes would flash, and his
words and gestures were powerful. Simon immediately
put on white man's clothes, and made and planted a field
of corn and potatoes adjoining the mission field. No
Dakota brave dared to cut up his tent or kill his dog or
break his gun ; but this did not prevent the boys, and
women too, from pointing the finger at him, and saying,
"There goes the man who has made himself a woman."
Simon seemed to care for it no more than the bull-dog
does for the barking of a puppy. He apparently brushed
it all aside as if it was only a straw. So far as any sign
from him, one looking on would be tempted to think that
he regarded it as glory. But it did not beget pride. He
did indeed become stronger thereby.

And yet, as time rolled by, it was seen, by the unfold
ing of the divine plan, that Simon could not be built up
into the. best and noblest character without suffering.
Naturally4, he was the man who would grow into self-
sufficiency. There were weak points in his character
which he perhaps knew not of. It was several years
after this when Simon visited us at the Traverse, and
made our hearts glad by his presence and help. But alas !
he came there to stumble and fall! "You are a brave
man — no man so brave as you are," said the Indians at
the Traverse to him. And some of them Avere distantly
related to him. While they praised and flattered him,

92 MARY AND I.

they asked him to drink whiskey with them. Surely he
was man enough for that. How many times he refused
Simon never told. But at last he yielded, and then the
very energy of his character carried him to great excess
in drinking " spirit water."

" LAC-QUI-PARLE, March 27, 1841.

" Until this, the seasons for sugar-making have been
very unfavorable since we have resided here. But this
spring the Indian women have been unusually successful,
and several of them have brought us a little maple sugar,
which, after melting and straining, was excellent, and
forcibly reminded us of home sugar. However, it does
not always need purifying, as some are much more cleanly
than others, here as well as in civilized lands. Sugar is
a luxury for which these poor women are willing to toil
hard, and often with but small recompense. Their camps
are frequently two or three miles from their lodges. If
they move to the latter, they must also pack corn for
their families ; and if not, with kettle in hand they go to
their camps, toil all day, and often at night return with
their syrup or sugar and a back load of wood for their
husbands' use the next day. Thus sugar is to them a
hard-earned luxury. But they have also others, which
they sometimes offer us, such as musk-rats, beavers'-tails,
and tortoises. I have never tried musk-rats, but husband
says they are as good as polecats — another delicacy !"

But I must leave these broken threads, and take up
the thread of my story. At Lac-qui-parle the school
room in Dr. Williamson's log house became too strait
for our religious gatherings. We determined to build a
church. The Dakota women volunteered to come and

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 93

dig out, in the side of the hill, the place where it should
stand. Building materials were not abundant nor easily
obtained, and so we decided to build an adobe. We
made our bricks and dried them in the sun, and laid them
up into the walls. We sawed our boards with the whip-
saw, and made our shingles out of the ash-trees. We
built our house without much outlay of money. The
heavy Minnesota rains washed its sides, and we plastered
one and clapboarded another. It was a comfortable
house, and one in which much preaching and teaching
were done ; moreover, when, in after years, our better
framed house was burned to the ground, this adobe
church still stood for us to take refuge in. There we
were living when Secretary S. B. Treat visited us in 1854,
and in one corner of that we fenced off with bed-quilts a
little place for him to sleep. In this adobe house we first
made trial of an instrument in song worship. Miss Lucy
Spooner, afterward Mrs. Drake, took in her melodeon.
But the Dakota voices fell so much below the instrument
that she gave it up in despair. By all these things we
remember the old adobe church at Lac-qui-parle. And
not less by the first consecration of it. That was a feast
made by Dr. Williamson for the men. The floor was not
yet laid, but a hundred Dakota men gathered into it and
sat on the sleepers, and ate their potatoes and bread and
soup gladly, and then we talked to them about Christ.

Of this church when commenced, Catherine Totiduta-
win wrote : " Now are we to have a church, and on that
account we rejoice greatly. In this house we shall pray
to the Great Spirit. We have dug ground two days
already. We have worked having the Great Spirit in
our thoughts. We have worked praying. When we
have this house we shall be glad. In it, if we pray, he

94 MARY AND I.

will have mercy upon us, and if he hears what we say,
he will make us glad. As yet we do what he hates. In
this house we will confess these things to him — our
thoughts, our words, our actions — these we will tell to
him. His Son will dwell in this house and pardon all
that is bad. God has mercy on us and is giving us a holy
house. In this we will pray for the nations."

" Dec. 10, 1841.

" The last two Sabbaths we have assembled in our new
chapel. Only one half is completed, though husband and
Mr. Pettijohn have been very diligent and successful.
You can scarcely imagine what a task building is in a
land where there is such a scarcity of materials and men.
During the summer great exertions were made to prepare
lumber, and two men were employed about two months
in sawing it with a whip-saw. The woods were searched
and researched for two or three miles for suitable timber,
and the result was about 3200 feet — which is not enough
— at an expense of $150. I might mention other hin
drances, but, notwithstanding them all, the Lord has evi
dently prospered the work, and our expectations have
been fully realized, if our wishes have not."

Besides Simon Anawangmane, two or three other young
men were won over to the religion of Christ before 1842.
One of these was Paul Mazakootaymane. Paul was a
man of different stamp from Simon. He was a native
orator. But he was innately lazy. Still, he has always
been loyal to the white people, and has done much good
work on their behalf.

There was at this time an elderly man who sought
admission to the church at Lac-qui-parle, Left Hand by

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 95

name. This man was Mr. Renville's brother-in-law. We
could not say he was not a true believer — he seemed to
be one. But he had two wives, and they both had been
received into church fellowship. They had been admitted
on the ground, partly, that it could not be decided which,
if either, was the lawful wife, and partly on the ground
that Dakota women heretofore could not be held respon
sible for polygamy. And now Left Hand claimed for
himself that he had lived with these women for a quarter
of a century, and had a family by each ; that he had en
tered into this relation in the days of ignorance, and that
the Bible recognized the rightfulness of such relations
under certain circumstances, since David and Jacob had
more than one wife. Mr. Renville, who was a ruling elder
in the church, took this position, and the members of the
mission were not a unit against it. So the question was
referred to the Ripley Presbytery. The result was that
our native church was saved from sanctioning polygamy.
We had the two wives of Left Hand, and two women
also in another case. But the husband's dying has long
since left them widows, and some of them also have gone
to the eternal world. The loose condition of the mar
riage relation is still that, in the social state of the Dako-
tas, which gives us the most trouble.

The fifth winter in our " little chamber " was one full
of work. In the early part of it, Mary was still in the
school. In the latter part our third child was born. She
was named "Martha Taylor," for the grandmother in
Massachusetts. During the years previous, I had under
taken to translate a good portion of the New Testament,
the Acts, and Paul's Epistles, and the Revelation. This
winter the corrected copy had to be made. Of necessity

96 MARY AND I.

I learned to do my best work surrounded by children.
My study and workshop was our sitting-room, and din
ing-room, and kitchen, and nursery, and ladies' parlor. It
was often half filled with Indians. Besides my own trans
lations, I copied for the press the Gospel of John and
some of the Psalms. A part of the latter were my own
translation, and a part were secured, as the Gospel was,
through Mr. Renville. There was also a hymn-book to
edit, and some school-books to be, prepared. So the win
ter was filled with work and service. The remembrance
of it is only pleasant. Of course, the ordinary family
trials were experienced. A bucket of water was spilled
and was leaking down on Mrs. Williamson's bed below,
or one of the children fell down the stairs, or our little
Bella crawled out of the window and sat on the little
shelf where the milk was set to cool in the morning, giv
ing us a good scare, etc.

MARY TO HER BROTHER ALFRED.

" LAC-QUI-PABLE, April 28, 1841.

" Your letter presented to my l mind's eye ' our moun
tain home. I entered the lower gate, passed up the lane
between the elms, maples, and cherries, and saw once more
our mountain home embowered by the fir-trees and shrub
bery I loved so well. How many times have I watched
the first buddings of those rose-bushes and lilacs, and
with what care and delight have I nursed those snow
balls, half dreaming they were sister spirits, telling by
their delicate purity of that Eden where flowers never
fade and leaves never wither. Perhaps I was too pas
sionately fond of flowers ; if so, that fondness is suffi
ciently blunted, if not subdued. Not a solitary shrub,
tree, or flower rears its head near our dwelling, excepting

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 97

those of nature's planting at no great distance on the op
posite side of the St. Peter's, and a copse of plums in a
dell on the left, and of scrub-oak on the right. Back of
us is the river hill which shelters us from the furious
wind of the high prairie beyond. Until last season we
have had no enclosure, and now we have but a poor de
fence against the depredations of beasts, and still more
lawless and savage men. On reading descriptions of the
situation of our missionary brethren and sisters in Beirut,
Jerusalem, and elsewhere, the thought has arisen, ' That
is such a place as I should like to call home.' But the
remembrance of earthquakes, war, and the plague, by
which those countries are so often scourged, hushed each
murmuring thought. When I also recollected the myste
rious providences which have written the Persian mission
aries childless, how could I long or wish to possess more
earthly comforts, while my husband and our two < olive
plants ' are spared to sit around our table. Little Bella
already creeps to her father, and, if granted a seat on his
knee, holds her little hands, although, as Alfred says, ' she
does not wait till papa says amen.' While we are sur
rounded by so many blessings, I would not, like God's an
cient people, provoke him by murmuring, as I fear I have
done, and if he should deprive us of any of the comforts
we now possess, may he give us grace to feel as did Hab-
akkuk, ' Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vine, etc., yet I will rejoice in the
Lord and joy in the God of my Salvation.'

"I suppose you have hardly yet found how much of
romance is mingled with your ideas of a married state.
You will find real life much the same that you have ever
found, and with additional joys, additional cares and sor
rows. I have realized as much happiness as I anticipated,

98 MARY AND I.

though many of my bright visions have not been realized,
and others have been much changed in outline and finish
ing. For instance, our still winter evenings are seldom
enlivened by reading, while I am engaged lulling our
little ones or plying my needle. Although I should
greatly enjoy such a treat occasionally ', I can not, in our
situation, expect it, while it is often almost the only time
husband can secure for close and uninterrupted study.
You know the time of a missionary is not his own"

" Thursday, May 19, 1841.

" Perhaps the scene that would amuse you most would
be * the babies' morning ride.' The little wagon in which
Isabella and my namesake, Mary Ann Huggins, are drawn
by the older children, even Alfred ambitious to assist,
would be in complete contrast with ' the royal princess'
cradle ' ; yet I doubt not it affords them as much pleas
ure as a more elegant one would. Alfred's was made by
his father, and Hetta, an Indian girl living at Mr. Hug-
gins', constructed a canopy, which gives it a tasteful,
though somewhat rude appearance. Mrs. Williamson's
son John draws his sister in a wagon of his own, so that
the whole troop of ten little ones, with their carriages,
form a miniature pleasure party."

" LAC-QUI-PAKLE, Feb. 26, 1842.

"We are grateful for the expression of kindness for us
and for our children, and we hope that our duty to those
whom God has committed to our care will be made plain.
Before your letter reached us, containing the remark of
'Mother Clark' about taking the little girl, we had
another little daughter added to our family, and had con-

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 99

eluded to leave Isabella with Miss Fanny Huggins, as it
is probable we shall return to this region, instead of
ascending the Missouri. Our little Martha we shall
of course not leave behind if our lives are spared and we
are permitted to go East ; and Alfred we intend taking
with us as far as Ohio."

Of the next year — from the spring of 1842 — little
need be said in this connection. The preparations were
all made. Mary and I took with us the little boy, now in
his fifth year, and the baby, while the little girl between
was left in the care of Miss Fanny Huggins. It was a
year of enjoyment. Mary visited the old home on Haw-
ley hills. The old grandfather was still there, and the
younger members of the family had grown up. Here,
during the summer, the little boy born in Dakota land
gathered strawberries in the meadows of Massachusetts.
Our school-books and hymn-book were printed in Boston,
and in the autumn we came to Ohio. During the winter
months the Bible-printing was done in Cincinnati.

When we were ready to start back, in the spring of
1843, we had secured as fellow-laborers, at the new sta
tion which we were instructed to form, Robert Hopkins
and his young wife Agnes, and Miss Julia Kephart, all
from Ripley, Ohio. The intercourse with so many sym
pathizing Christian hearts, which had been much inter
ested in the Dakota mission from its commencement, was
refreshing. We found, too, that we had both been for
getting our mother tongue somewhat, in the efforts made
to learn Dakota. This must be guarded against in the
future. In our desire to be Dakotas we must not cease
to be English.

The bottoms of the Lower Minnesota were putting on

100 MARY AND I.

their richest robes of green, and the great wild-rose gar
dens were coming into full perfection of beauty, when,
in the month of June, our barge, laden with mission sup
plies, was making its way up to Traverse des Sioux. At
what was known as " The Little Rapids " was a village
of Wahpaton Dakotas, the old home of the people at
Lac-qui-parle. There were certain reasons why we
thought that might be the point for the new station. We
made a halt there of half a day, and called the chief men.
But they were found to be too much under the influence
of the Treaty Indians below to give us any encourage
ment. In fact, they did not want missionaries.

We passed by, and landed our boats at the Traverse.
The day before reaching this point, Mrs. Hopkins and
Mary had made arrangements to have some light bread,
— they were tired eating the heavy cakes of the voyage.
They succeeded to their satisfaction, and placed the warm
bread away, in a safe place, as they supposed, within the
tent, ready for the morning. But when the breakfast
was ready, the bread was not there. During the night
an Indian hand had taken it.

The Dakotas were accustomed to do such things.
While at Lac-qui-parle we were constantly annoyed by
thefts. An axe or a hoe could not be left out-of-doors,
but it would be taken. And in our houses we were con
tinually missing little things. A towel hanging on the
wall would be tucked under the blanket of a woman, or
a girl would sidle up to a stand and take a pair of scis
sors. Any thing that could be easily concealed was sure
to be missing, if we gave them an opportunity. And
these people at the Traverse (Sissetons they were) we
found quite equal to those at Lac-qui-parle. Stealing,
even among themselves, was not considered very dis-

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 101

honorable. The men said they did not steal, but the
women were all wamanonsa.

We had decided to make this our new station. We
should consult the Indians, but our staying would not
depend upon their giving us an invitation to stay. And
so the first thing to be done was to start off the train to
Lac-qui-parle. In the early part of June, 1842, after
Mary and I left, there had come frosts which cut off the
Indian corn. The prospect was that the village would be
abandoned pretty much during the year. This led Dr.
Williamson to come down to Fort Snelling, as Mr. S. W.
Pond and wife had already gone up to take our place.
This spring of 1843, Mr. Pond had left, and Dr. William
son could not return until the autumn, as he had engaged
temporarily to fill the place of surgeon in the garrison.
In these circumstances it was deemed advisable for Mr.
and Mrs. Hopkins to go on to Lac-qui-parle for a year.
Mary took her baby, Martha Taylor, now fifteen months
old, and went up with them to bring down Isabella.

Thomas Longley, a young man of 22 years, and rejoic
ing in a young man's strength, had joined us at Fort Snel
ling. He was a part of our boat's company up the Minne
sota; and now he and I and the little boy, Zitkadan Wash-
tay, remained to make a beginning. Immediately I called
the Indians and had a talk with them, at Mr. Le Eland's
trading-post. I told them we had come to live with them,
and to teach them. Some said yes and some said no. But
they all asked, What have you to give us?

It was at a time of year when they were badly off for
food, and so I gave them two barrels of flour. Before
the council was over, some of the principal men became
so stupid from the influence of whiskey which they had been
drinking, that they did not know what they were saying.

102 MARY AND I.

Old Sleepy Eyes and Tankamane were the chief men
present. They were favorable to our stopping, and re
mained friends of the mission as long as it was continued
there. But some of the younger men were opposed.
One especially, who had a keg of whiskey that he was
taking to the Upper Minnesota, was reported as saying
that when he had disposed of his whiskey, he would come
back and stop Tamakoche's building. But he never came
back — only a few days after this, he was killed in a
drunken frolic.

We expected to meet with opposition, and so were not
disappointed. Thomas and I pitched our tents under
some scrub-oaks, on a little elevation, in the lower river
bottom, a half a mile away from the Trader's. Immedi
ately we commenced to cut and haul logs for our cabin.

In the meantime, the party going to Lac-qui-parle were
nearing their destination. With them there were three
young men who had accompanied us to Ohio, and spent
the year. Their baptized names were Simon, Henok, and
Lorenzo. Each was about twenty years old. While on
their way down, we had cut off their hair and dressed
them up as white men. They had all learned much in
their absence; while two of them had added their names
to the rolls of Christian churches in Ohio. Thus, they
were returning. The party spent the Sabbath a day's
travel from Lac-qui-parle. On Monday, before noon, these
young men had seen, on some far-off prairie elevation,
what seemed to be Indians lying down. But their sus
picions of a war-party were not very pronounced.

Five miles from the mission, the road crosses the
Mayakawan — otherwise called the Chippewa River. It
was a hot afternoon when the mission party approached
it. They were thirsty, and the young men had started on

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 103

to drink. Simon was ahead, and on horseback. Sud
denly, as he neared the stream, there emerged from the
wood a war-party of O jib was, carrying two fresh scalps.
Simon rode up and shook hands with them. He could do
this safely, as he was dressed like a white man. They
showed him the scalps, all gory with blood ; but he wot
not that one of them was his own brother's. This brother
and his wife and a young man were coming to meet their
friends. As the two men came to the crossing, they were
shot down by the Ojibwas, who lay concealed in the
bushes. The woman, who was a little distance behind,
heard the guns and fled, carrying the news back to the
village. And so it happened that by the time the mis
sion teams had fairly crossed the river, they were met by
almost the whole village of maddened Dakotas. They
were in pursuit of the Ojibwas. But had not the mis
sionaries taken these boys to Ohio ? And had not these
two young men been killed as they were coming to meet
the boys? Were not the missionaries the cause of it all?
So questioned and believed many of the frantic men.
And one man raised his gun and shot one of the horses
in the double team, which carried Mrs. Hopkins and Mary.
This made it necessary for them to walk the remainder
of the way in the broiling sun of summer. Mary found
her little girl too heavy a load, and after a while was
kindly relieved of her burden by a Dakota woman, whom
she had taught to wash. The excitement and trouble
were a terrible strain on her nervous system, and made
the gray hairs come prematurely here and there among
the black.

CHAPTER VI.

1843-1846.— Great Sorrow.— Thomas Drowned. —Mary's Letter.
- The Indians' Thoughts. — Old Gray-Leaf . — Oxen Killed.—
Hard Field. — Sleepy Eyes' Horse. — Indian in Prison. — The
Lord Keeps Us. — Simon's Shame. — Mary's Letter. — Robert
Hopkins and Agnes. — Le Bland. — White Man Ghost. — Ben
nett. — Sleepy Eyes' Camp. — Drunken Indians. — Making
Sugar. — Military Company. — Dakota Prisoners. — Stealing
Melons. — Preaching and School. — A Canoe Voyage. — Red
Wing.

SUDDENLY, at the very commencement of our new sta
tion, we were called to meet a great sorrow. Mary had
come back from Lac-qui-parle with the two little girls, and
our family were all together once more. Mr. Huggins
and his sister, Miss Fanny Huggins, and Mr. Isaac Petti-
john had come down along. Mr. Pettijohn helped us
much to forward the log cabin. Saturday came, the 15th
of July — and the roof was nearly finished. We should
move into its shelter very soon. No one was rejoicing in
the prospect more than the young brother, Thomas Law
rence Longley. He sang as he worked that morning.

Mr. Huggins had the toothache, and, about 10 o'clock,
said he would go and bathe, as that sometimes helped his
teeth. Brother T. proposed that we should go also, to
which I at first objected, and said we would go after
dinner. He thought we should have something else to do
then ; and, remembering that once or twice I had prevented
his bathing, by not going when he wished, I consented.
We had been in the water but a moment, when, turning

104

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 105

around, I saw T. throw up his hands and clap them over
his head. My first thought was that he was drowning.
The current was strong and setting out from the shore. I
swam to him — he caught me by the hand, but did not ap
pear to help himself in the least — probably had the cramp.
I tried to get toward shore with him, but could not. He
pulled me under once or twice, and I began to think I
should be drowned with him. But when we came up
again, he released his grasp, and, as I was coming into
shallow water, with some difficulty, I reached the shore.
But the dear boy Thomas appeared not again. The cruel
waters rolled over him. In the meantime, Mr. Huggins
had jumped into a canoe, and was coming to our relief.
But it was too late — too late !

Mary's first letter after the 15th of July, 1843: —
"Traverse des Sioux, Friday noon: What shall I add,
my dear parents, to the sad tidings my husband has writ
ten ? Will it console you in any measure to know that
one of our first and most frequent petitions at the throne
of grace has been that God would prepare your hearts
for the news, which, we feared, would be heart-breaking,
unless 'the Comforter' comforted you and the Almighty
strengthened you? We hope — indeed, some small
measure of faith is given us to believe — that you will
be comforted and sustained, under this chastening from
the Lord. And oh, like subdued, humbled, and peni
tent children, may we all kiss the rod, and earnestly
pray that this sore chastisement may be for our spiritual
good !

" I feel that this affliction, such as I have never before
known, is intended to prepare us who are left for life and
death. Perhaps some of us may soon follow him whom
we all loved. When I stand by his grave, overshadowed

106 MAKY AND I.

by three small oaks, with room for another person by his
side, I think that place may be for me.

" The last Sabbath he was with us was just after my
return from Lac-qui-parle. I reached here on Saturday,
and having passed through distressing scenes on our way
to Lac-qui-parle, occasioned by an attack of the Chippe-
was on some Sioux who were coming to meet us, I felt
uncommon forebodings lest something had befallen the
dear ones I had left here. But I endeavored to cast my
care upon the Lord, remembering that while we were
homeless and houseless we were more like our Saviour.
And that if he was despised and rejected of men, ice
surely ought not to repine if we were treated as our
Master. With such feelings as these, as we came in sight
of husband's tent, I pointed it out to Isabella, when she
asked, '^here's papa's house?' and soon I saw Mr.
Riggs and brother Thomas and little Alfred coming to
meet us.

" Not quite one week after that joyful hour, Mr. Riggs
came home from the St. Peter's, groaning, 'Oh, Mary,
Thomas is drowned — Thomas is drowned ! ' I did not,
I could not receive the full import. I still thought his
body would be recovered and life restored ; for your
sakes, I cried for mercy, but it came not in the way I
then desired. Still, I tried to flatter myself, even after
search for the body had been given up for the day, that
it had floated down upon a sand-bar, and he would yet
live arid return in the dusk of the evening. But when I
lay down for the night, and the impossibility of my illu
sive hopes being realized burst upon me, oh —

" The hand of the Lord had touched us, and we were
ready to sink; but the same kind hand sustained us.
May the same Almighty Father strengthen you. One

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 107

thought comforted me not a little. ' If brother Thomas
had gone home to our father's house in Massachusetts, I
should not have grieved much ; and now he had gone to
his Father's and our Father's home in Heaven, why
should I mourn so bitterly ? I felt that God had a right
to call him when he pleased, and I saw his mercy, in
sparing my husband to me a little longer, when he was
but a step from the eternal world. Still, I felt that I had
lost a brother, and such a brother !

"Before I went to Lac-qui-parle, I had confided Alfred
to his special care. I knew that the rejection of our offer
of stopping at the Little Rapids, by the Indians there,
had been exceedingly painful and discouraging to Mr.
Riggs, and the rumor that the Indians here would do
likewise was no less so ; and I should have felt very un
pleasantly in going for Isabella at that time, but it
seemed necessary, and I felt that brother Thomas would
be, what he was, ' a friend in need.' On my return, on
recounting the scenes I had passed through, the killing
by the Chippewas of the eldest brother of one of our
young men, as he was coming to meet him — the shooting
of one of our horses by a Sioux man, who pretended to
be offended because we did not pursue the Chippewas,
when we were more than three miles from the mission,
and that I carried Martha there in my arms, one of the
warmest afternoons we had — Thomas said, ' I see
you have grown poor, but you will improve from this
time.'

"On Saturday morning, as we were busily engaged
near each other, he sang, ' Our cabin is small and coarse
our fare, But love has spread our banquet here ! ' Soon
afterward he went to bathe, and of course our roof and
floor remained unfinished, but that evening we termi-

108 MAKY AND I.

nated in sadness what had been to us a happy feast of
tabernacles, by moving into our humble dwelling. For a
little while on Sabbath, his remains found a resting-place
within the house his hands had reared. I kissed his
cheek as he lay upon a plank resting on that large red
chest and box which were sent from home, but, owing to
the haste and excitement, I did not think to take a lock
of hair. It curled as beautifully as ever, although drip
ping with water, and the countenance was natural, I
thought, but it has rather dimmed my recollections of
him as he was when living. I felt so thankful that
his body had been found before any great change
had taken place, that gratitude to God supplanted my
grief while we buried him. Mr. Huggins and Fanny
sang an Indian hymn made from the 15th chapter of
First Corinthians, and then, ' Unveil thy bosom, faith
ful tomb.' We cajne home just after sunset. It is
but a little distance from our dwelling, and in the
same 'garden of roses,' as Thomas called it, where he
now sleeps."

Only a few additional circumstances need to be noted.
The sad story was carried speedily to the Indian tents,
and those who were in the neighborhood came to look on
and give what sympathy and help they could. That was
not much. The deep hole was too deep to be reached by
any means at our command. The waters rolled on, and
to us, as we gazed on them, knowing that the dear
brother, Thomas, was underneath them, they began more
and more to assume a frightful appearance. For months
and months after, they had that frightful look. I shud
dered when I looked. The Indians said their water God,
OoukteJie, was displeased with us for coming to build

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 109

there. He had seized the young man. It did seem some
times as though God wos against us.

The Saturday's sun went down without giving success
to our efforts, and on Sabbath morning the Indians re
newed the search somewhat, but with no better result.
Toward evening the body was found to have risen and
drifted to a sand-bar below. We took it up tenderly,
washed and wrapped it in a clean linen sheet, and placed
it in the new cabin, on which his hands had wrought. A
grave was dug hastily under the scrub-oaks, where, with
only some loose boards about it, we laid our brother
to rest until the resurrection. That was our Allon-
bachuth. We were dumb, because God did it. That
was the first great shadow that came over our home. It
was one of ourselves that had gone. The sorrow was too
great to find expression in tears or lamentations. The
Dakotas observed this. One day old Black Eagle came
in and chided us for it. " The ducks and the geese and
the deer," he said, "when one is killed, make an outcry
about it, and the sorrow passes by. The Dakotas, too,
like these wild animals, make a great wailing over a dead
friend — they wail out their sorrow, and it becomes
lighter ; but you keep your sorrow — you brood over it,
and it becomes heavier." There was truth in what the
old man said. But we did not fail to cast our burden
upon the Lord, and to obtain strength from a source
which the Black Eagle knew not of.

The old men came frequently to comfort us in this
way, and it gave us an opportunity of telling them
about Christ, who is the great Conqueror over death
and the grave. Sometimes they came in and sat in
silence, as old Sleepy Eyes and Tankamane often did,
and that did us good. Old Gray Leaf had a gift of talk-

110 MARY AND I.

ing — he believed in talking. When he came in, he made
an excited speech, and at the close said, " I don't mean
anything."

About this time Mary wrote : " A few days after T.
was drowned, some of the Indians here, entirely regard
less of our affliction, came and demanded provisions as
pay for the logs in our cabin. Mr. Riggs had previously
given them two barrels of flour, and it was out of our
power to aid them any more then, although Mr. R. told
them, after their cruel speeches, that he would endeavor
to purchase some corn, when the Fur Company's boat
came up. They threatened killing our cattle and tearing
down our cabin, and husband's proposition did not pre
vent their executing the first part of their threat. Just
one week after dear T. was drowned, one ox was killed,
and in eight days more the other shared the same fate.
Then we felt that it was very probable our cabin would
be demolished next."

The summer was wearing away. We were getting
some access to the people. On the Sabbath, we could
gather in a few, to be present while we sang Dakota
hymns and read the Bible and prayed. But there was
a good deal of opposition. As our oxen had been killed
and eaten, and we were approaching the winter, it was
necessary that we have some means of drawing our fire
wood. So I bought one ox, and harnessed him as the
Red River people do. He was a faithful servant to us
during that winter, but the next summer he too was
killed and eaten. This time they came boldly, and
broke open our stable, and killed and carried awny the
animal. It seemed as if they were determined that we

FORTY TEARS WITH THE SIOUX. Ill

should not stay. Did the Lord mean to have us give up
our work there? We did not want to decide that ques
tion hastily.

In the meantime, the field was proving to be a very
unpromising as well as difficult one, because of the great
quantities of whiskey brought in. St. Paul was then
made up of a few grog-shops, which relied chiefly on the
trade with the Indians. They took pelts, or guns, or
blankets, or horses — whatever the Indian had to give for
his keg of whiskey. The trade was a good one. The
Lower Sioux bought for the Upper ones, and helped
them to buy ; and those at the Traverse and other
points engaged in the carrying trade. When a keg was
brought up, a general drunk was the result ; but there
was enough left to fill with water, and carry up farther
and sell for a pony. This made our work very dis
couraging. Besides, we were often annoyed by the visits
of drunken Indians. Sometimes they came with guns
and knives. So that we all felt the strain of those
years, and we often asked one another, " What good is to
come of this?"

One winter night, Sleepy Eyes had come in from
Swan Lake, and placed his horse at our haystack, while
he himself went to the trader's to spend the night. Just
before we retired to rest, we heard voices and feet
hurrying past our door. I went out and found that
two men and a woman were at the stable — the men
were shooting arrows into Sleepy Eyes' horse. One of
the men said, " I asked uncle for this horse, and he did
not give it to me — I am killing it." They had done
their work. Perhaps I had interfered unnecessarily —
certainly unsuccessfully. As they returned and passed
by our cabin, I was behind them, and, as I was stepping

112 MARY AND I.

in at the door, an arrow whizzed by. Was it intended
to hit?

The next morning that Indian started off for whiskey,
but a white man passed down the country also, and told
the story at Fort Snelling. The result was that the man
who killed his uncle's horse was put in the guard-house.
Not for that, but for shooting at a white man, he was to
be taken down into Iowa, to be tried for assault. The
commandant of the post at Snelling doubted whether
good would come of it, and I fully agreed with him.
And so, in the month of March, Tankamane (Big
Walker) and I went down to the fort and procured
his release. He promised well — he would drink no
whiskey while he lived — he would always be the white
man's friend. He signed the pledge and went back with
Big Walker and myself. A captain's wife asked how
I dared to go in company with that man. I said,
" Madam, that man will be my best friend." And
so he was. He went up to the Blue Earth hunting-
grounds, and brought us in some fine venison hams.

But still intemperance increased. A drunken man
went to the mission singing, and asked for food. They
gave him a plate of rice and a spoon, but he did not feel
like eating then. After slobbering over it awhile, he
compelled the white women to eat it. They were too
much afraid to refuse. One time Mr. Hopkins and I
were both away until midnight, when my friend, Tanka
mane, while drunk, visited the house and threatened to
break in the door. But we reached home soon after
ward, and the women slept. Thus we had the " terror
and the arrow," but the Lord shielded us.

These were very trying years of missionary work. It
was at this time our good friend and brother, Simon

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 113

Anawangmane, who had come from Lac-qui-parle, gave
way to the temptation of strong drink. We were grieved,
and he was ashamed. We prayed for him and with him,
and besought him to touch it not again. He promised,
but he did not keep his promise. He soon developed a
passion for " fire water." It was not long before he put
off his white man's clothes, and, dressed like an Indian,
he too was on his way to the western plains, to buy a
horse with a keg of whiskey. There were times of re
penting and attempted reformation, but they were fol
lowed by sinning again and again. Shame took posses
sion of the man, and shame among the Dakotas holds
with a terrible grip. He will not let go, and is not ea
sily shaken off. Shame is a shameless fellow ; it insti
gates to many crimes. So eight years passed with
Simon. Sometimes he was almost persuaded to attempt
a new life. Sometimes he came to church and sat down
on the door-step, not venturing to go in ; he was afraid of
himself, as well he might be.

" TRAVERSE DBS Sioux, July 13, 1844.
"... The Indians and the babies, the chickens and
the mice, seem leagued to destroy the flowers, and they
have wellnigh succeeded. Perhaps you will wonder
why I should bestow any of my precious time on flow
ers, when their cultivation is attended \vith so many
difficulties. The principal reason is that I find my mind
needs some such cheering relaxation. In leaving my
childhood's home for this Indian land, you know, my
dear mother, I left almost everything I held dear, and
gave up almost every innocent pleasure I once enjoyed.
Much as I may have failed in many respects, I am per
suaded there was a firmness of purpose, to count no

114 MARY AND I.

necessary sacrifice too great to be made. I do not think
I have made what should be called great sacrifices, but I
am using the phrase as it is often used, and I am conscious
that, in some respects, I have tasked myself too hard. I
feel that I have grown old beyond my years. Even the
last year has added greatly to my gray hairs. I have
been spending my strength too rapidly, and I have often
neglected to apply to Him for strength of whom Isaiah
says, 'He giveth power to the faint; and to them that
have no might he in crease th strength.' How beautiful
and precious is the promise to those who wait upon the
Lord ! When c even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall ' ; ' they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall
mount up with wings, as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' Oh, if we
could live by faith, the difficulties and the trials of the
way would not greatly trouble or distress us."

In the spring of 1844, Robert and Agnes Hopkins
came down from Lac-qui-parle, and, for the next seven
years, were identified with the missionary work at Tra
verse des Sioux. The opposition to our remaining grad
ually died away and was lived down. Louis Provencalle,
the trader, alias Le Bland, had probably tried to carry
water on both shoulders, but he was thoroughly con
verted to our friendship by an accident which happened
to himself. The old gentleman was carrying corn, in
strings, into his upper chamber by an outside ladder.
With a load of this corn on his back, he fell and caught
on his picket fence, the sharp-pointed wood making a
terrible hole in his flesh. For months I visited him
almost daily and dressed bis wound, He recovered, and,

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 115

although he was not the less a Romanist, he and his fam
ily often came to our meetings, and were our fast friends.
Perhaps some seeds of truth were then sown, which bore
fruit in the family a score of years afterward.

Thus we had, occasionally, an opportunity to help a
fellow white man in trouble. It was one Saturday in the
early part of September, while we were at work on our
school-house, that an Indian runner came in from Swan
Lake, to tell us that a "ghost " had come to their camp.
A white man had come in in the most forlorn and desti
tute condition. The story is well told by Mary in her
letters home.

" TK AVERSE DES Sioux, Oct. 10, 1844.

"We have just returned in safety, after spending a
week very pleasantly and profitably at Lac-qui-parle. An
armed force, from Forts Snelling and Atkinson, have re
cently passed up to Lake Traverse, to obtain the mur
derers of an American killed by a Sisseton war-party
this summer.

"The circumstances of the murder were very aggra
vating, as communicated to us by the only known sur
vivor. A gentleman from the State of Missouri, Turner
by name, with three men, were on their way to Fort
Snelling with a drove of cattle for the Indians. Being
unacquainted with the country, they wandered to the
north-west, when they were met by a war-party of Sisseton
Sioux, returning from an unsuccessful raid upon the
Ojibwas. Finding them where they did, on their way
apparently to the Red River of the North, they supposed
they belonged to that settlement, with whom they had re
cently had a quarrel about hunting buffalo. And so they
commenced to treat these white men roughly, demanding

116 MARY AND I.

their horses, guns, and clothes. One man resisted and
was killed, the others were robbed. Shirts, drawers, hats,
and vests were all that were left them. Some of the
cattle were killed, and the rest fled. One of the Ameri
cans, with some Indians, were sent after them, but he
made his escape, and was never heard of again. The
next morning, the other two were permitted to leave, but
the only requests they made, for their coats, a knife, and a
life-preserver, were not granted.

" The second and third day after this escape, they saw
the cattle, and if only a knife had been spared them, they
might have supplied themselves with provisions, but as
they were, it was safest, they thought, to hasten on. On
the fourth day they came to a stream too deep to ford,
and Turner could not swim. Poor Bennett attempted to
swim with him, but was drawn under several times, and,
to save his own life, was obliged to disengage himself
from Turner, who was drowned. Bennett came on alone
five days, finding nothing to eat but hazel-nuts, when at
length he came in sight of the Sioux Lodges at Swan
Lake. He lay awake that night deliberating whether he
should go to them or not. ' If I went,' he said, ' I ex
pected they would kill me ; if I did not go, I knew I
must die, and I concluded to go, for I could but die.'

" The next morning he tottered toward the Sioux camp.
Ever and anon he stopped and hid in the grass. The
Dakotas watched his movements. Some young men went
out to meet him, but Bennett was afraid of them, and
tried to crawl away. When the old man Sleepy Eyes
himself came in sight, his benevolent, honest counte
nance assured the young white man, and he staggered
toward the Dakota chief. His confidence was not mis
placed. Sleepy Eyes took the wanage ghost, as they

FOKTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 117

called him, to his tent, and his daughter made bread for
him of flour, which the old man had bought of us a few
days before ; and Bennett declared he never ate such
good bread in his life. Mr. Riggs brought him home,
for which he said he was willing to be his servant for
ever. We furnished him with such clothing as we had,
and after three weeks recruiting we sent him home. At
Fort Snelling, he was furnished with money to go to his
parents, whom he had left without their consent.

" Since our return from Lac-qui-parle, the Indians have
been drunk less than for some time before. At one time
quite a number of men came in a body and demanded
powder, which Mr. Riggs intended giving them. I but
toned the door to prevent their entrance, as Mr. Riggs
was not in at the moment, but the button flew into pieces
as the sinewy arm of Tankamane pressed the latch.
Some of the party were but slightly intoxicated. Those
Mr. Riggs told positively that he should not listen to a
request made by drunken men, notwithstanding their
threatening ' to soldier kill ' him — that is, to kill his
horse. Tankamane was so drunk that he would not be
silent enough to hear, until Mr. R. covered his mouth
with his hand and commanded him to be still, and then
assured them that he was not ready to give them the
powder, and that they had better go home, which they
did soon.

" I am not usually much alarmed, though often con
siderably excited. Some Sabbaths since, a party of
Indians brought a keg of whiskey, and proposed drinking
it in our new building, which is intended for a chapel
and school-room. But the Lord ^did not permit this
desecration. One of their number objected to the plan,
and they drank it outside the door."

118 MARY AND I.

When our school-house was erected and partly finished,
our efforts at teaching took on more of regularity. It
was a more convenient room to hold our Sabbath service
in. In religious teaching, as well as in the school, Mr.
Hopkins was an indefatigable worker. He learned the
language slowly but well. Often he made visits to
the Indian camps miles away. When the Dakotas of
that neighborhood abstained for a while from drinking,
we became encouraged to think that some good impres
sions were being made upon them. But there would
come a new flooding of spirit water, and a revival of
drinking. Thus our hopes were blasted.

" TRAVERSE DES Sioux, March 15, 1845.
" At the present time our Indian neighbors are absent,
some at their sugar camps, and others hunting musk-rats.
Thus far the season has not been favorable for making
sugar, and we have purchased but a few pounds, giving
in return flour or corn, of which we have but little, to
spare. Last spring, we procured our year's supply from
the Indians, and for the most of it we gave calico in
exchange. Not for our sakes, but for the sake of our
ragged and hungry neighbors, I should rejoice in their
having an abundant supply. They eat sugar, during the
season, as freely as we eat bread, and what they do not
need for food they can exchange for clothing. But they
will have but little for either, unless the weather is more
favorable the last half than it has been the first part of
this month. And they are so superstitious that some,
I presume, will attribute the unpropitious sky and wind
to our influence. Mr. Hopkins visited several camps
about ten miles distant, soon after the first and thus far
the only good sugar weather. One woman said to him,

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 119

' You visited us last winter ; before you came there
were a great many deer, but afterward none ; and now
we have made some sugar, but you have come, and
perhaps we shall make no more.' "

" June 23, 1845.
" My Dear Mother : —

" Having put our missionary cabin in order for the
reception of Captains Sumner and Allen, and Dr.
Nichols, of the army, I am reminded of home. I have
not made half the preparation which you used to make
to receive military company, and I could not if I would,
neither would I if I could. I do, however, sometimes
wish it afforded me more pleasure to receive such guests,
when they occasionally pass through the country. We
have so many uncivilized and so few civilized, and our
circumstances are such that I almost shrink from trying
to entertain company. I sometimes think that even
mother, with all her hospitality, would become a little
selfish if her kitchen, parlor, and dining-room were
all one."

This was the second military expedition made to secure
the offenders of the Sisseton war-party. The one made
in the fall of 1844 secured five Indians, but not the ones
considered most guilty. But they made their escape on
the way down to Traverse des Sioux. The expedition,
to which reference is made above, was more successful.
The Indians pledged themselves to deliver up the guilty
men. They did so. Four men were delivered up and
taken down to Dubuque, Iowa, where they were kept in
confinement until winter. Then they were permitted to
escape, and, strange to say, three of them died while
making their way back, and one lived to reach his

^ MARY AND T.

friends. It was very remarkable that three Indians
should be placed over against three white men in the
outcome of Providence.

" Aug. 15, 1845.

" Our garden enclosure extends around the back side
and both ends of our mission house, while in front is a
double log cabin, with a porch between. Back of the
porch we have a very small bedroom, which our chil
dren now occupy, and back of our cabin, as it was first
erected, we have a larger bedroom, which, by way of
distinction, we call the nursery. The door from this
room opens into the garden. The room does not extend
half the length of the double log cabin, so that Mr.
Hopkins has a room corresponding with our nursery, and
then, between the two wings, we have two small win
dows, one in the children's bedroom, and the other in
our family-room. Shading the latter are Alfred's
morning-glories and a rose-bush. A shoot from this
wild rose has often attracted my attention, as, day after
day, it has continued its upward course. It is now seven
feet high — the growth of a single season — and is still
aspiring to be higher. Bowed beneath it is a sister
stalk laden with rose-buds. Last year it was trampled
upon by drunken Indians, but now our fence affords us
some protection, and we flattered ourselves that our
pumpkins and squashes would be unmolested. But we
found, to our surprise, one day, that our garden had been
stripped of the larger pumpkins the night previous.
Our situation here, at a point where the roving sons of
the prairie congregate, exposes us to annoyances of this
kind more frequently than at other stations among the
Sioux. I can sympathize very fully with Moffat in like
grievances, which he mentions in his ' Southern Africa.' "

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 121

9

11 Jan. 29, 1846.

" For several Sabbaths past we have had a small con
gregation. It encourages us somewhat to see even a few
induced to listen for a short time to the truths of the
Gospel. But our chief encouragement is in God's unfail
ing promises. The Indians here usually sit during the
whole service, and sometimes smoke several times.

" For some weeks I have been teaching the female part
of our school. Some days half a dozen black-eyed girls
come, and then, again, only one or two. Their parents
tell them that we ought to pay them for coming to
school, and, although there have been no threats of
cutting up the blankets of those who read, as there was
last winter, they are still ridiculed and reproached. We
have in various ways endeavored to reward them for
regular attendance, in such a manner as not to favor the
idea that we were hiring them."

In the spring of 1846, Mary wanted to get away for a
little rest. We fitted up a canoe, and, with a young man
of the fur-trade, we started down the Minnesota. Mary
had her baby, our fourth child, whose name was Anna
Jane. We had scarcely well started when we met
drunken Indians. Their canoe was laden with kegs of
whiskey, and they were on shore cooking. They called
to us to come over and give them some food ; but wo
passed by on the other side. One man raised his gun
and poured into us a volley of buckshot. Fortunately,
Mary and the baby were not touched. The canoe and
the rest of us were somewhat sprinkled, but not seriously
hurt.

That canoe voyage was continued down the Mississippi
River as far as Red Wing. At Mr. Pond's station we

122 MARY AND I.

%

took in Jane Lamonte, afterward Mrs. Titus. Where
the city of St. Paul now is, we made a short stop, and I
hunted up one of our Dakota church members, the wife
of a Frenchman. A half a dozen log houses, one here
and one there, made up the St. Paul of that day. At
Pine Bend, Mr. Brown left us. After that, the rowing
was heavy, and the muscles were light. Just above the
mouth of the St. Croix, we found a house, where we
spent the night comfortably. The next day, we reached
Red Wing, a Dakota village, or Hay-minne-chan, with
much difficulty. We had to row against a strong head
wind, and I, who was the principal oarsman, fell sick.
But, as Providence would have it, we came upon a wood
man, who took us to the village.

Red Wing was the station of the Swiss mission, occu
pied by the Dentans. Mrs. Dentan had been a teacher
in the Mackinaw mission school. Here we found good
Christian friends, and spent two weeks in helping them
to do missionary work. While we were there, I went to
see a young man whom the medicine-men were conjur
ing. The Dakota doctor claimed that the spirit which
caused the disease was greatly enraged at my presence.
And so, at their earnest request, I retired. That sick
young man is now one of our excellent native pastors.
We have since talked over the event with much inter
est.

CHAPTER VII.

1846-1851. — Returning to Lac-qui-parle. — Reasons Therefor. —
Mary's Story. — " Give Me My Old Seat, Mother." —At Lac-
qui-parle. — New Arrangements. — Better Understanding. —
Buffalo Plenty. — Mary's Story. — Little Samuel Died. — Going
on the Hunt. — Vision of Home. — Building House. — Dakota
Camp. — Soldier's Lodge. — Wakanmane's Village. — Making
a Presbytery. — New Recruits. — Meeting at Kaposia. — Mary's
Story. — Varied Trials. — Sabbath Worship. — " What is to
Die ? " — New Stations. — Making a Treaty. — Mr. Hopkins
Drowned. — Personal Experience.

THE time came when it was decided that Mary and I
should go back to Lac-qui-parle. The four years since
we left had brought many changes. They had been
years of discouragement and hardship all along the line.
The brothers Pond had built among the people of their
first love — the old Lake Calhoun band, now located a
short distance up from the mouth of the Minnesota.
There they had a few who came regularly to worship and
i<> learn the Way of Life. But the mass of the people of
Cloud Man's village were either indifferent or opposed to
the Gospel of Christ.

At Lac-qui-parle, where had been the best seed-sowing
and harvesting for the first seven years, the work had
gone backward. Bad corn years had driven some of the
native Christians to take refuge among the annuity Ind
ians of the Mississippi. Temptations of various kinds
had drawn away others — they had stumbled and fallen.

123

124 MARY AND I.

Persecutions from the heathen party had deterred
others, and some had fallen asleep in Christ. Among
these last was Mr. Joseph Renville, who had stood l>y
the work from the beginning. He had passed away in
the month of March ; and thus the Lac-qui-parle church
was reduced to less than half its members of four years
ago.

Out of this church there had gone a half a dozen or so,
chiefly women, down to Kaposia, or Little Crow's village,
which was on the Mississippi, a few miles below the site
of St. Paul. Through them, more than any other influ
ence perhaps, there came an invitation, from Little Crow
and the head men of the village, to Dr. Williamson,
through the Indian agent at Fort Snelling, to come down
and open a school and a mission. This application was
considered at the meeting of the Dakota mission held at
the Traverse, and the voices were in favor of acceptance.
But if Dr. Williamson left Lac-qui-parle, that involved
the necessity of our returning thither. This proposition
Mary could not entertain willingly. True, the work at
the Traverse had been full of hardships and suffering, but
the very sufferings and sorrows, and especially that great
first sorrow, had strongly wedded her affections to the
place and the people. It was hard to leave those Oaks
of Weeping. She could not see that it was right ; still,
she would not refuse to obey orders.

And so the month of September, 1846, found us travel
ling over the same road that we had gone on our first
journey, just nine years before. Then we two had gone;
now we had with us our four little ones, but it was a sad
journey. The mother's heart was not convinced, nor
was it satisfied we had done right, until some time after
we reached Lac-qui-parle.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 125

" TK AVERSE DES Sioux, Sept. 17, 1846.

" This is probably the last letter I shall write you from
this spot so dear to us. If I could see that it was duty
to go, it would cheer me in the preparations for our de
parture, but I cannot feel that the interests of the mis
sion required such a sacrifice as leaving this home is to
me.

" These are some of the thoughts that darken the
prospect, when I think of leaving the comforts and con
veniences which we have only enjoyed one or two short
summers — such as the enclosure for our children — our
rude back porch which has served for a kitchen, the door
into which I helped Mr. Riggs saw with a cross-cut saw,
because he could get no one to help him. We located
here in the midst of opposition and danger, yet God
made our enemies to be at peace with us. Sad will be
the hour when I take the last look of our low log cabins,
our neat white chapel, and dear Thomas' grave."

" LAC-QUI-PARLE, Dec. 10, 1846.

" How pleasant it would be, dear mother, to join your
little circle around home's hearth ; but it is vain to wish,
and so I take my pen, that this transcript of my heart
may enter where I cannot. In one of the late New
York Observers^ I found a gem of poetry, which seemed
so much like the gushings of my affection for my
mother that I must send you the verse which pleased
me best: —

" ' Give me my old seat, mother,

With my head upon thy knee ;
I've passed through many a changing scene,
Since thus I sat by thee,

126 MAKY AND I.

" Oh, let me look into thine eyes —

Their meek, soft, loving light
Falls like a gleam of holiness,
Upon my heart, to-night! '

" How very often have I found myself half wishing for
my old seat, witli my head upon thy knee, that I might
impart to you my joys and my sorrows, and listen to
your own. In times of difficulty and distress, how I
have longed for your counsel and cheering sympathy.
After leaving our home at Traverse des Sioux and reach
ing this place, my heart yearned to embrace you. My
associates could not comprehend why it should be so
trying to me to leave that place so dear to us. I had
hoped to live and die and be buried there by the loved
grave of Thomas. I had laid plans for usefulness there,
and the change that came over us in one short week, dur
ing which we packed all our effects and prepared for the
journey, was so sudden and so great that it often seemed
I should sink under it. Had I been able to see it clearly
our duty, the case would have been different. I hope it
will prove for the best. Doubtless I was too much
attached to that burial spot and that garden of roses.
Henceforth, may I more fully realize that 'we have no
abiding city here,' and, like a pilgrim, press onward to
that eternal haven — that unchanging home — little
mindful where I pass the few brief nights that may in
tervene."

"Dec. 16.

" You will, I think, feel gratified to know that there
are some things pleasant and encouraging here, notwith
standing the discouragements. The sound of the church-
going bell is heard here — the bell which we purchased
with the avails of moccasins donated by the church mem-

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 127

bers. Some of those contributors are dead, and others
have backslidden or removed ; still, there are more hearers
of the Word here than at Traverse des Sioux, although
the large majority in both places turn a deaf ear to the
calls and entreaties of the Gospel. Quite a number of
the women who attend the Sabbath services can read, but
some of them can not find the hymns, and I enjoy very
much finding the places for them."

Our place at the Traverse was filled by Mr. A. G. Hug-
gins' family, who thenceforward became associated with
Mr. Hopkins, until they closed their connection with the
mission work. Fanny Huggins had married Jonas Petti-
john, and they were our helpers at Lac-qui-parle for the
next five years.

The time seemed to have come when our relations to
the Indians should, if possible, be placed upon a better
basis. From the time that the chief men came to under
stand that the religion of Christ was an exclusive relig
ion, that it would require the giving up of their ancestral
faith, they set themselves in opposition to it. Sometimes
this was shown in their persecution of the native Chris
tians, forbidding them to attend our meetings, and cutting
up the blankets of those who came. Sometimes it was
exhibited in the order that the children should not attend
school. But the organized determination to drive us
from the country showed itself most decidedly in killing
our cattle. We could not continue in the country, and
make ourselves comfortable, without a team of some
kind. This, then, was to be their policy. They would
kill our cattle. They would steal our horses. And they
had so persistently held to this line of treatment, during
the last four years, that Dr. Williamson and his associ-

128 MARY AND I.

ates had with difficulty kept a team of any kind. Once
they were obliged to hitch up milch cows to haul fire
wood.

The Indians said we were trespassers in their country,
and they had a right to take reprisals. We used their
wood and their water, and pastured our animals on their
grass, and gave them no adequate pay. We had helped
them get larger corn-patches by ploughing for them, we
had furnished food and medicines to their sick ones, we
had often clothed their naked ones, we had spent and
been spent in their service, but all this was, in their esti
mation, no compensation for the field we planted, and
the fuel we used, and the grass we cut, and the water we
drank. They were worth a thousand dollars a year !

And so it seemed to me the time had come when some
better understanding should be reached in regard to
these things. I called the principal men of the village —
Oo-pe-ya-hdaya, Inyangmane, and Wakanmane, and
others — and told them that, as Dr. Williamson was called
away by the Lower Indians, my wife and I had been sent
back to Lac-qui-parle, but we would stay only on certain
conditions. We knew them and they knew us. If we
could stay with them as friends, and be treated as friends,
we would stay. We came to teach them and their chil
dren. But if then, or at any time afterward, we learned
that the whole village did not want us to stay, we would
go home to our friends. For the help we gave them the
water we used must be free, the wood to keep us warm
must be free, the grass our cattle ate must be free, and
the field we planted must be free ; but when we wanted
their best timber to build houses with, which we should
do, I would pay them liberally for it. This arrangement
they said was satisfactory, and soon afterward we bought

FOKTY YEA.KS WITH THE SIOUX. 129

from them the timber we used in erecting two frame
houses.

From this time onward we did not suffer so much from
cattle-killing, though it has always been an incident
attaching to mission life among the Indians. For the
years that followed we were generally treated as friends.
Sometimes there was a breeze of opposition, some wanted
us to go away, but we always had friends who stood by
us. And they were not always of the same party. The
results of mission work began to be seen in the young
men who grew up, many of them desirous of adopting, in
part at least, the habits and the dress of the whites.

There was another reason for a cessation of hostilities
on their part ; viz., that starvation did not so much stare
them in the face. They had better corn crops than for
some years previous. And, besides this, for two seasons
the buffalo range was extended down the Minnesota far
below Lac-qui-parle. For many years they had been far
away, west of Lake Traverse. Now they came back, and
for two winters our Indians revelled in fresh buffalo meat,
their children and dogs even growing fat. And the buf
falo robes gave them the means of clothing their families
comfortably.

Sometimes the herds of bison came into the immediate
neighborhood of the village. One morning it was found
that a large drove had slept on the prairie but a little
distance back of our mission houses. Mr. Martin Mc-
Leod, the trader, and a few others organized a hunt on
horseback. There was snow on the ground, I hitched
our ponies to a rude sled, and we went to the show. As
the hunters came into the herd and began to shoot them,
the excitement increased in our sled — the ponies could
not go fast enough for the lady.

130 MARY AND I.

We now addressed ourselves afresh to the work of
teaching and preaching. The day-school filled up. We
took some children into our families. The young men
who had learned to read and write when they were boys,
came and wanted to learn something of arithmetic and
geography. In the work of preaching I began to feel
more freedom and joy. There had been times when the
Dakota language seemed to be barren and meaningless.
The words for Salvation and Life, and even Death and
Sin, did not mean what they did in English. It was not
to me a heart-language. But this passed away. A Da
kota word began to thrill as an English word. Christ
came into the language. The Holy Spirit began to pour
sweetness and power into it. Then it was not exhaust
ing, as it sometimes had been — it became a joy to preach.

" LAC-QUI-PARLE, May 17, 1847.

" Since Mr. Riggs left home, two weeks to-day, I have
had a double share of wants to supply. I could almost
wish he had locked up the medicine-case and taken the
key with him, for I have not so much confidence in my
skill as to suppose the Indians would have suffered if it
had been out of my power to satisfy their wants. I pur
posed only giving rhubarb and a few other simples, but I
have been besieged until I have yielded, and have no
relief to hope for until Mr. Riggs returns.

" In addition to the medicines, there has been a greafc
demand for garden-seeds, to say nothing of the common
wants of a little thread, or soap, or patches for a ragged
short-gown, or a strip of white cloth for the head to en-
able them to kill ducks or buffalo, as the case may be.
There is scarcely any view of God's character that gives

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 131

me so clear an apprehension of his infinite goodness and
power as that of his kind care of his sinful creatures.
He listens to their requests, and giving doth not impov
erish, neither doth withholding enrich him."

"May 26.

" This afternoon twenty-six armed Indian men paraded
before the door and discharged their guns. I was a little
startled at first, but soon learned that they had been in
search of Chippewas that were supposed to be concealed
near by, and that they had returned unsuccessful, and
were merely indulging in a little military exercise."

" Jan. 11, 1848.

" The last Sabbath in December, Mr. Riggs spent at an
Indian encampment about sixteen miles from this place.
When he left home, baby Samuel, Mr. and Mrs. Petti-
john's only child, was ill, but we did not apprehend dan
gerously so ; when he returned on Monday noon, little
Samuel was dead. This has been a severe affliction to
them. Why was this first-born and only son taken, and
our five children spared, is a query that often arises.

" Some weeks ago, an elderly woman with a young babe
begged me for clothing for the little one. I asked her if
it was her child. She replied that it was her grandchild,
that its mother died last summer, and that she had nursed
it ever since. At first she had no milk, but she continued
nursing it, until the milk flowed for the little orphan.
This, thought I, is an evidence of a grandmother's love
not often witnessed. I felt very compassionate for the
baby, and gave the grandmother some old clothing.
After she left, a knife was missing, which seemed rather

132 MARY AND I.

like a gypsy's compensation for the kindness received.
But perhaps she was not the thief, as our house was then
thronged with visitors from morning till night. We en
deavor to keep such things as they will be tempted to
steal out of their reach, but a mother can not watch three
or four children, and perform necessary household duties
at the same time, without sometimes affording an oppor
tunity for a cunning hand to slip away a pair of scissors
or a knife unnoticed.

" The buffalo are about us in large herds. I have just
taken a ride of four or five miles to see these natives of
the prairie. Before the herd perceived our approach, they
were quietly standing together, but, on perceiving us,
they waited a moment for consultation, and then started
bounding away. Those who wrere prepared for the chase
entered their ranks, and then the herd separated into three
or four parts, and scampered for life in as many different
directions. Several were killed arid dressed, and we
brought home the huge head of one for the children to
see, besides the tongue and some meat, which were given
us as our share of the spoils."

" May 25, 1848.

" How very quiet and green I think those lanes are —
no noise except the whispering winds in those beautiful
elms and maples ; and those still rooms, where rang the
merry shout of children returned from school. I could
almost fancy they would look as sober and sombre as
those dark firs under which we played when we and they
were small. They still are young and vigorous, for aught
I know, but we, alas ! are young no longer. Do the lilacs
and roses and snowballs still bloom as brightly as ever ?
But the thought of those bright and beautiful scenes

FOETY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 133

makes me sad, and I wish to write a cheering letter, so
good-by to the visions of departed joys.

" We are building, this summer, a plain, snug, one-story
house, with a sitting-room, kitchen, and two bedrooms on
the lower floor, and two rooms above, if ever they should
be completed. We have been hoping to have a young
lady to assist in teaching, etc., for an occupant of one of
our bedrooms, but the prospect is rather discouraging.
And yet I feel that it is no more so than we deserve, for
I have not exercised faith in this respect. I have, how
ever, some hope that He * who is able to do exceeding
abundantly, above all that we ask or think,' will send us
such fellow-laborers as we need."

During these two buffalo winters, almost the whole vil
lage removed up to the Pom me de Terre, or Owobaptay
River as the Dakotas called it. That was a better point
to hunt from. For the regulation of the hunt, and to
prevent the buffalo from being driven off, they organized
a Soldiers1 Lodge. This was a large tent pitched in the
centre of the camp, where the symbols of power were
kept in two bundles of red and black sticks. These rep
resented .the soldiers — those who had killed enemies and
those who had not. To this tent the women brought
offerings of wood and meat ; and here the young and old
men often gathered to feast, and from these headquarters
went forth, through an Eyanpaha (cryer), the edicts of
the wise men.

For these two winters, I arranged to spend every alter
nate Sabbath at the camp, going up on Saturday and re-
t urning on Monday. This soldiers' tent was, from the
first, placed at my disposal for Sabbath meetings. It
was an evidence of a great change in the general feeling

134 MARY AND I.

of the village toward Christianity. It was a public
recognition of it. All were not Christians by any means ;
but the following was honorable and honored, and we
usually had a crowded tent. Our evening meetings were
held in the tent of one of our church members. So the
Word of God grew in Dakota soil.

Where the village of Lac-qui-parle now stands is the
site of Wakanmane's planting-place and village of those
days. In one of the summer bark houses, we were ac
customed to hold a week-day meeting. Our mission was
three miles from there, and on the other side of the
Minnesota ; but it was only a pleasant walk of a summer
day, and I was sure to find a little company, chiefly
women, of from half a dozen to a dozen present. After
two years' absence, Dr. Williamson returned to Lac-qui-
parle on a visit, and remarked that he had found no meet
ings among the Dakotas so stimulating and encouraging
as that weekly prayer-meeting. I have since spent a
Sabbath, and worshipped with white people on the same
spot. It seemed like Jacob coming back to Bethel, where
the angels of God had been.

There were still few things to encourage, and many to
discourage, all through the Dakota field; but it began to
appear to us that if our forces could be doubled, the
work, with God's blessing, might be pushed forward suc
cessfully. And so the Dakota Presbytery, which was
organized in 1845, proceeded to license and ordain
Gideon H. Pond and Robert Hopkins as ministers of the
Gospel. They had both been working in this line for
years, and it was fit that they should now be properly
recognized as fellow-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.

The American Board was ready also to respond to our
call for more help. In the spring of 1848, Rev. M. N.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 135

Adams and Rev. John F. Alton were sent up from Ohio
and Illinois ; and, later in the season, Rev. Joshua Potter
came from the Cherokee country. Our annual meeting
was held that year with Dr. Williamson, at his new sta
tion, Kaposia, a few miles below St. Paul. It was a
meeting of more than ordinary interest ; not only on
account of our own reinforcements, but because we met
there two lady teachers (Gov. Slade's girls), the first sent
out to the white settlements of Minnesota. The toilers
of fourteen years among the Dakotas now shook hands
with the first toilers among the white people.

The boy Thomas had been added to our little group of
children. With a part of the family, Mary now made
the trip back to the Traverse, with a much gladder heart
than she had when coming up two years before.

" LAC-Ql" PARLK, Oct. 16, 1848.

"This year the annual meeting of our mission was at
Kaposia, the station occupied by Dr. Williamson and
family. I accompanied Mr. Riggs with three of our
children. From the Traverse, Mr. Hopkins had arranged
that we should proceed through the Big Woods, by
means of ox-carts. There was no road cut yet, and hun
dreds of large logs lay across the path ; but the patient
animals worried over them, and drivers and riders were
very weary when, late at night, we came into camp. At
Prairieville, as Tintatonwe signifies, where Mr. S. W.
Pond is located, we spent the Sabbath, and reached Dr.
Williamson's on Monday, only eight days from Lac-qui-
parle, not a little fatigued, but greatly prospered in our
journey. More truly than did the Gibeonites could we
say, ' This our bread we took hot for our provision out

136

MARY AND I.

of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you ;
but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy.'

" At Kaposia we found the Messrs. Pond, also Mr. and
Mrs. Aiton, and Mr. and Mrs. Adams, who have recently
joined the Sioux mission. Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, with
their three children, who were of our party from the
Traverse, and ourselves in addition to Dr. Williamson's
family, made such a company as I had not seen for a
long time. The warm reception we met with from so
many kindred in Christ excited me almost as much as
did the greeting at home after five years' absence. It
reminded me of that happy meeting, and, as at that time,
I was overpowered with joyful emotions.

" We passed nearly a week at Kaposia, and then set our
faces homeward, spending a night at Mr. G. H. Pond's,
at Oak Grove, and one also at Mr. Samuel W. Pond's, at
Tintatonwe. Two nights we camped out, and reached
Traverse on Friday afternoon. While there I often went
to brother Thomas' grave. The turf, which I assisted in
setting, was very green, and the rose-bushes were flourish
ing. The cedar we planted withered, but a beautiful
one, placed by Mr. Hopkins near the grave, is fresh and
verdant. Mr. and Mrs. Adams returned with us to Lac-
qui-parle."

" LAC-QUI-PAKLE, Jan. 6, 1849.

" The Spirit has seemed near us, and we hope A. is lis
tening to his teachings. Some of the Indians also have
manifested an inquiring state of mind, but Satan is very
busy, and unless the Lord rescues his rebellious subjects
from the thraldom of the devil, I fear the Holy Spirit
will depart from us.

" The same foolish yet trying accusations are made —
such as that we are to receive pay according to the num-

FOKTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 137

her of scholars in the school here when the land is sold
— that we are using up their grass and timber and land,
and making them no requital. A few days ago the old
chief and his brother-in-law came and rehearsed their
supposed claims, and said that the Indians were tired
eating corn and wanted one of our remaining cattle.
Truly we can say that this earth is not our rest, and re
joice that we shall not live here always.

"We have had faith to expect that the Lord was
about to ' make bare his arm ' for the salvation of these
degraded Indians; and although the heathen rage, we
know that He who 'sitteth on the circle of the earth and
the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,' can turn
the hearts of this people as the rivers of water are
turned."

" May 31, 1849.

" During Mr. Riggs' absence, our worship on the Sab
bath, both in Sioux and English, has consisted of reading
the Scriptures, singing, and prayer. I have been grati
fied that so many attended the Sioux service — about
thirty each Sabbath. Anna Jane remarked the Saturday
after her father left home, ' We can't have any Sabbath
because two men and one woman are gone,' referring to
her papa and Mr. and Mrs. Adams. Still, these Sabbaths
have brought to us privileges, even though the preached
Word and the great congregation have been wanting."

"June 15.

" Mr. Riggs reached home two weeks ago, and last
Monday he left again for Big Stone Lake, accompanied
by Mr. Hopkins of Traverse des Sioux. They have gone
hoping for opportunities to proclaim the Word of God to
the Sioux in that region."

138 MAKY AND I.

" Sept. 2, 1850.

" Last evening, hearing Thomas cry after he had gone
to rest, I went to the chamber. Alfred was teaching him
to say, ' Now I lay me,' and the sentence, ' If I should
die,' distressed him very much. I soothed him by asking
God to keep him through the night. He has never seen
a corpse, but, a few weeks ago, he saw Mrs. Antoine Ren-
ville buried, and he has seen dead birds and chickens.
He said, 'What is to die, mamma?' and evidently felt
that it wras something very incomprehensible and dread
ful. I felt a difficulty in explaining it, and I wished to
soothe the animal excitement, and not lessen the serious
state of mind he manifested. I think I will tell him
more about Jesus' death — his burial and resurrection.
It is this that has illumined the grave. It is faith in
Him who has conquered 'him that had the power of
death,' which will give us the victory over every fear."

With an increased missionary force, we hoped to see
large results within the next few years. There was prog
ress made, but not so much as we hoped for. In fact,
it was chiefly apparent in " strengthening the things that
remain." Just before this enlargement, Mr. S. W. Pond
had separated from his brother, and formed a station at
Shakopee, or Six's Village, which he called Prairievitte.
After a while, little churches were organized at Kaposia,
Oak Grove, Prairieville, and Traverse des Sioux. At
Lac-qui-parle the numbers in the church were somewhat
increased. We began to have more young men in the
church, and they began to separate themselves more and
more from the village, and to build cabins and make
fields for themselves. Thus the religion of Christ worked
to disintegrate heathenism,

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 139

The summer of 1851 came, which brought great changes,
and prepared the way for others. It was one of the very
wet summers in Minnesota, when the streams were flooded
all the summer through. In making our trip for provis
ions in the spring, we were detained at the crossing of
one stream for almost a whole week. In the latter part
of June, the Indians from all along the upper part of the
Minnesota were called down to Traverse des Sioux, to
meet commissioners of the government. They were
obliged to swim at many places. The Minnesota was
very high, spreading its waters over all the low bottom
contiguous to the mission premises. Governor Ramsay
and Commissioner Lea were there for the government.
General Sibley and the fur-traders generally were present,
with a large number of the Wahpaton and Sisseton
Sioux.

The Fourth of July was to be celebrated grandly, and
Mr. Hopkins had consented to take a part in the celebra
tion, but the Lord disposed otherwise. In the early
morning, Mr. Hopkins went to bathe in the overflow of
the river. When the family breakfast was ready he had
not returned. He was sought for, and his clothes alone
were found. He had gone up through the flood of water.
It was supposed that, unintentionally, he had waded in
beyond his depth, and, as he could not swim, was unable
again to reach the land.

This was the second great sorrow that came, in the
same way, to the mission band of Traverse des Sioux. It
threw a pall over the festivities of the day. The Indians
said again the Oonktehe — their Neptune — was angry
and had taken the wechasta wakan. But the mission
families were enabled to say, " It is the Lord." When
the body floated it was caught in fishing nets, and care-

140 MARY AND I.

fully taken up and buried by the " Oaks of Weeping."
Mr. Hopkins did not live to see much matured fruit of
his labors, but he had put in eight years of good, honest
work for the Master, among the Dakotas, and he has his
reward.

The Treaty was made, which, with one consummated
immediately after, at Mendota, with the Lower Sioux,
conveyed to the white people all their land in Minnesota,
except a reserve on the upper part of the river. These
treaties had an important bearing on our mission work
and on all the eastern Dakotas.

The messenger who brought word to us at Lac-qui-
parle of the sudden death of our brother, Robert Hop
kins, brought also to me a pressing invitation from the
commission to attend the making of the Treaty. I at
once mounted a pony and rode down. It gave me an
opportunity of seeing the inside of Indian treaties. On
my return, I was in advance of the Indians, and, coming
to the Chippewa alone, I found no way of crossing its
swollen tide but by swimming. In the middle of the
stream, my horse turned over backward, and we went
down to the bottom together. He soon, however, righted
himself, and I came up by his side, with one hand holding
his mane. I remember well the feeling I had when in the
deep waters, that my horse would take me out. And I
was not disappointed. This event has ever since been
to me a lesson of trust. " Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort

CHAPTER VIII.

1851-1854.— Grammar and Dictionary.— How It Grew.— Publica
tion. — Minnesota Historical Society. — Smithsonian Institu
tion.— Going East.— Mission Meeting at Traverse des Sioux. —
Mrs. Hopkins. — Death's Doings. — Changes in the Mode of
Writing Dakota — Completed Book. — Growth of the Lan
guage. _ in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. — The Misses
Spooner. — Changes in the Mission. — The Ponds and Others
Retire. — Dr. Williamson at Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze. — Winter
Storms. — Andrew Hunter. — Two Families Left. — Children
Learning Dakota. — Our House Burned. — The Lord Pro
vides.

A GRAMMAR and dictionary of the Dakota language had
been going through the process of growth in all these
years. It was incidental to our missionary work, and in
the line of it. The materials came to us naturally in our
acquisition of the language, and we simply arranged
them. The work of arrangement involved a good deal
of labor ; but it brought its reward, in the better insight
it gave one of their forms of thought and expression.

To begin with, we had the advantage of what had been
gathered by the Messrs. Pond and Stevens, and Dr. Will
iamson, in the three years before we came. Perhaps an
effort made still earlier, by some officers of the army at
Fort Snelling, in collecting a vocabulary of a few hun
dred words of the Sioux language, should not be over
looked. Thus, entering into other men's labors, when we
had been a year or more in the country, and were some
what prepared to reap on our own account, the vocabu-

141

142 MARY AND I.

lary which I had gathered from all sources amounted
to about three thousand words.

From that time onward, it continued to increase rapidly,
as by means of translations and otherwise we were gath
ering new words. In a couple of years more, the whole
needed revision and rewriting, when it was found to have
more than doubled. So it grew. Mr. S. W. Pond also
entered into the work of arranging the words and noting
the principles of the Dakota language. He gave me the
free use of his collections, and he had the free use of
mine. This will be sufficient to indicate the way in which
the work was carried on from year to year. How many
dictionaries I made I cannot now remember. When the
collection reached ten thousand words and upward, it
began to be quite a chore to make a new copy. By and
by we had reason to believe that we had gathered pretty
much the whole language, and our definitions were meas
urably correct.

It was about the beginning of the year 1851 when the
question of publication was first discussed. Certain gen
tlemen in the Legislature of Minnesota, and connected
with the Historical Society of Minnesota, became inter
ested in the matter. Under the auspicies of this society,
a circular was printed setting forth the condition of the
manuscript, and the probable expense of publication, and
asking the co-operation of all who were interested in
giving the language of the Dakotas to the literary world
in a tangible and permanent form. The subscription
thus started by the Historical Society, and headed by
such names as Alexander Ramsay (then governor of the
Territory), Rev. E. D. Neill (the secretary of the society),
H. H. Sibley, H. M. Rice, and Martin McLeod (the chiefs
of the fur-trade), in the course of the summer, amounted

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 143

to about eight hundred dollars. With this sum pledged,
it was considered quite safe to commence the publication.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis
sions very cheerfully consented to pay my expenses while
carrying the work through the press, besides making a
donation to it directly from their treasury.

From these sources we had $1000 ; and with this sum
the book might have been published in a cheap form,
relying upon after sales to meet any deficiency. But,
after considering the matter, and taking the advice of
friends who were interested in the highest success of the
undertaking, it was decided to offer it to the Smithsonian
Institution, to be brought out as one of their series of
contributions to knowledge. Prof. Joseph Henry at once
had it examined by Prof. C. C. Felton and Prof. W. W.
Turner. It received their approval and was ordered to
be printed.

In the meantime, Mary and I had undertaken our sec
ond trip to the East. Mr. and Mrs. Adams, who had been
away awhile on account of Mrs. Adams' health, were now
back at Lac-qui-parle, associated with Mr. and Mrs. Petti-
john. We commenced our journey across the prairie
about the first of September. The waters were still high,
and we found it necessary to make a boat which should
serve as a bed for one of our wagons, and be easily trans
ferred to the water.

Our children now numbered a round half-dozen. The
baby, Henry Marty n, about two years old, must be taken
along, of course. The boy, " Good Bird," now about four
teen, we would take down with us and send to school in
Illinois. Isabella we concluded to take on to the
mother's mountain home in Massachusetts. The two lit-

144 MARY AXD I.

tie girls were kindly cared for in the family of Rev. E. D.
Neill of St. Paul ; and the little boy, Thomas, was to stay
in Dr. Williamson's family, at Kaposia. Thus the distri
bution was finally made.

The mission meeting took place this year at Traverse
des Sioux. Among other consultations, it was adjudged
wise for Mrs. Hopkins and her three children — the father
and husband being gone — to accompany us on their
return to her friends in Southern Ohio. The brothers
Pond and Rev. Joseph Hancock, who had joined the
mission and was stationed at Red Wing, all had their
horses, and, the travel by land being difficult, they put
them on board our good mission boat Winona, and so we
had a full cargo down to St. Paul.

From there we had a steamer to Galena, where we took
passage in freight wagons that were going to El^in, the
terminus of the railroad that was then being made west
from Chicago. This trip across the country we all greatly
enjoyed, stopping at Freeport over the Sabbath, and lis
tening to the somewhat celebrated revivalist Elder Knapp.
We crossed Lake Michigan, and by the Michigan Central
to Detroit, and then took a lake boat to Cleveland. That
night we encountered a lake storm; and, while almost
every one was sea-sick, Mary and I stood on the fore deck
and enjoyed watching the mountain waves.

Reaching the land in safety, Mrs. Hopkins and her lit
tle family went to Southern Ohio, and we spent a few days
in Medina, with Mary's brother, Rev. M. M. Longley.
We found that the eight years which had passed since we
were East before had made a good many vacant chairs in
our home circles. My own father had been called from
earth very suddenly, in 1845. He was well and had done
a hard day's work, but ere the evening shadows fell he had

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 145

passed beyond the river. The angel of death and the
angel of life had visited Mary's home again and again.
First the grandfather, Col. Edmund Longley, had gone to
his fathers, at the good old age of ninety-five. Then, in
1848, the pater familias, Gen. Thomas Longley, had
wrapped his cloak about him and laid him down to rest.
The next to hear the summons was the little sister, Hen
rietta Arms. She had grown to be a woman, and Mary
fondly hoped to have her companionship and aid in the
Dakota field. But the Master called her up higher. And
then, only a few months before we reached Ohio, the lov
ing, cultured, and beloved brother Alfred had passed,
through months of weariness and pain, up to the new life
and vigor of the heavenly world. He had been preach
ing for several years in North-eastern Ohio. So many
had gone that when we reached the mountain home in
Hawley, we found it desolate. Only Joseph and his
mother remained. Mary soon persuaded her mother to
go down to South Deerfield, that they might together
spend the winter with the older sister, Mrs. Cooley. And
I went to New York City, and was the next seven
months engaged in getting through the press the gram
mar and dictionary of the Dakota language.

Of the various hindrances and delays, and of the burn
ing of the printing-office in which the work was in prog
ress, and the loss of quite a number of pages of the
book, which had to be again made up, I need not speak.
They are ordinary incidents. Early in the summer of
1852 the work was done, — and done, I believe, to the
satisfaction of all parties. Tt has obtained the commen
dation of literary men generally, and it was said that for
no volume published by the Smithsonian Institution, up
to that time, was the demand so great as for that. It is

146 MARY AND I.

now out of print, and the book can only be bought at
fancy prices.

The question of republication is sometimes talked of,
but no steps have been taken yet to accomplish the
object. While, as the years have gone by, and the book
has been tested by Dakota scholars and found to be all
that was ever claimed for it, yet, in case of a republica
tion, some valuable additions can be made to the sixteen
thousand words which it contains. The language itself
is growing. Never, probably, in its whole history, has it
grown so much in any quarter of a century as it has in
the twenty-five years since the dictionary was published.
Besides, we have recently been learning more of the
Teeton dialect, which is spoken by more than half of the
whole Sioux nation. And, as the translation of the Bible
has progressed, thoughts and images have been brought
in, which have given the language an unction and power
unknown to it before.*

While we were in the East, several offers were made in
regard to taking one of our children. These offers came
from the best families, where a child would have enjoyed
all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, more
than could be had in our Indian home. It was a ques
tion that had often claimed our thought, and sometimes
had been very favorably considered ; but when the oppor
tunity came, we decided to keep our children with us for
the present. The circumstances of our home-life had
changed somewhat; home education could be carried on
to better advantage and with less drawbacks than in the
first years of our missionary life.

And so in the month of June, when the Philadelphia

* A revised edition will soon be published.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 147

market was red with its best strawberries, we started
westward, bringing the two children with us. It had
l>een a profitable year to Isabella. The mother and chil
dren had spent a couple of the last months with relatives
and friends in Brooklyn, and now we made a little stop
in the Quaker City, and visited Girard College, Fair-
mount, and other places of interest. It was September
when we had gathered all our six children together and
were making the trip across the prairie to Lac-qui-parle.
This time we had with us the Misses Lucy and Mary
Spooner of Kentucky, — since Mrs. Drake and Mrs.
Worcester. They came out to spend two years in the
mission. Miss Lucy's teaching in music, vocal and instru
mental, as well as other branches, was of singular advan
tage to our own children, as well as to the Indians. Miss
Mary went into the family of Mr. Adams, who had
gathered a little boarding-school of Dakota children.
This might be called the first effort in this line made
among the Dakotas.

Before our return, Mr. and Mrs. Pettijohn had taken the
pre-emption fever, and had left the mission and gone to
the Traverse and made a claim. Mrs. Pettijohn had
been connected with the mission work since 1839, and
Mr. P. for a shorter period. Both had been conscientious
workers, and had done good service. They now wanted
to make a home for their growing family. Mr. Huggins
also, about the same time, left the mission work," and
made a home in the same neighborhood. Mr. Potter
had left the Dakota field after only a year's trial, regard
ing it as a very difficult one, as compared with the one he
had left in the Indian Territory South. Now, in the
years 1852 and 1853, our numbers diminished very rap
idly. The Indians were to be removed, according to the

148 MARY AND I.

stipulations of their treaties, to their reserve on the Upper
Minnesota. Both the brothers Pond elected to stay where
they were, and minister to the white people who were
rapidly settling up the country. Both were successful in
organizing churches, one at Shakopee and the other at
Bloomington. Both still live, but have retired from the
work of the ministry, and are waiting for the translation
to the upper world.*

Likewise, for the same reasons, Mr. John F. Aiton
retired from the service of the Board about the same
time, and Mr. Hancock also. Dr. Williamsom elected
to continue his work among the Dakotas, and so made
arrangements, in advance of the removal of the Indians,
to open a new station near the Yellow Medicine, which
he called Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze — the Dakota name for that
stream.

During the summer of 1852, Dr. Williamson had
erected his dwelling-house at this new place, but it was
still in quite an unfinished state when he removed his
family up, in the beginning of the cold weather. That
fall the snows came early, and found the family without
any sufficient supplies for the winter. In December, the
storms were incessant, and the snow became very deep, at
which time the doctor's men were toiling against odds,
endeavoring to bring up provisions to the family on the
Yellow Medicine. But they could not succeed. When
they were yet more than forty miles away, their teams
gave out and were buried in the snow. The men, both

* Since this chapter was written, Rev. G. H. Pond, the younger
of the brothers, has gone to see the King in his Beauty, in the Land
that is not very far off. He departed on the 20th of January, 1878,
leaving a family of fifty, — twenty-two were grandchildren, — and
all except the sixteen youngest professing Christians.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 149

frozen badly, Mr. Andrew Hunter much maimed, barely
succeeded in reaching the mission. How the family were
to winter through was not apparent, but the Lord pro
vided. Unexpectedly, the Indians found fish in the river,
and Mr. Adams, with a young man, worked his way down
from Lac-qui-parle, and carried them what provisions
they could on a hand-sled. Thus they weathered the ter
rible winter. Thus they commenced mission work at this
new place, where they continued for ten years, until the
outbreak.

At Lac-qui-parle we were doing effective Christian
work. Our own family were all together. The hard
winter entailed a good deal of hard work. The snow
would sift through our roofs and pack into the upper
part of our houses, until, as we sometimes said, there was
more inside than outside. Every day, also, our hay-stacks
were covered up with snow, so as to make the labor of
feeding the cattle very great. But still these were years
of enjoyment and profit. A company of Dakota young
men were growing up and preparing for work in the
future.

The next year Mr. Adams received an invitation to
take charge of the church of white people at Traverse
des Sioux, which was the continuation of the mission
church organized there. This invitation he accepted,
and closed his connection with the special work for the
Dakotas. It will occur to every reader of these memoirs
to note how many men the foreign mission work among
the Dakotas gave to the home mission work among the
white people of Minnesota. The shepherds were here
in advance of their flocks. The work is one — the world
for Christ.

The Dakota mission was now reduced to its lowest

150 MAKY AND I.

terms; only Dr. Williamson's family and my own re
mained. If the Lord had not given us the victory when
we were many, would he do it when we were few ? We
were sure he could do it. While it is true that the
Lord is often on the side of the strong battalions, it is not
always so. And spiritual forces are not measured by
the same rules that measure material forces. So we
toiled on with good hope, and when, a year later, we
were called to leave Lac-qui-parle, and commence our
station elsewhere, Secretary Treat proposed that we call
it New Hope.

In carrying on missionary labor among a heathen peo
ple, the question, What shall be the relation of the chil
dren of the mission family to the people? is often a
difficult and perplexing one. The springs of the home-
life must be kept, as far as possible, from being con
taminated. And yet the daily intercourse with those
of impure thoughts and impure words is contaminating.
Shall we make our family a garden inclosed? If so, the
children when small must not learn the language of the
natives. Mary and I adopted this principle and carried
it out very successfully. Up to the time of our return
in 1852, our children had hardly learned any Dakota.
Now, our boy Alfred was fifteen years old, and had
assigned to him duties which made it necessary that
he should understand the Indians somewhat and make
himself understood by them. So he commenced to learn
the language. John P. Williamson had commenced to
talk it much earlier. Doubtless the advantage in speak
ing a language is with those who learn in their very
childhood, other things being equal. The reason for the
exclusion had partly passed by, and the taking of

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 151

Dakota children into our family, and being closely con
nected with a boarding-school of Dakota children, made
it impossible, if it had been desirable, longer to keep up
the bars.

By and by came along the third of March, 1854. The
spring had opened early, the ground was bare of snow,
and everything was dry. Our cellars had been in the
habit of freezing, and to protect our potatoes and other
vegetables we had been in the habit of stuffing hay
under the floor, all around, in the fall. This hay had not
yet been removed, and was very dry. The cellar was
dark, and a lighted candle was needed by those who went
down for any purpose. The mother was preparing for
the family dinner, and so had sent down the little boys,
Thomas and Henry, in their seventh and fifth years re
spectively, to bring her up potatoes. Through careless
ness, and without thought, perhaps, they held the lighted
candle too near the dried hay. It took fire immedietely,
and in a few seconds of time so filled the cellar with
smoke that the boys with some difficulty made their
escape.

There was no supply of water nearer than the river
and spring run, down quite a hill. But every boy and
girl were soon carrying water. The difficulty was to
reach the fire with the water. The floor was flooded
and a hole was cut through, but the fire had taken such
a hold of the whole interior, that our little pails full of
water were laughed at by the flames. The effort was now
made to save something from the burning house. Some
articles were carried into the other house, which stood
near by. But that also took fire, and both houses
were soon consumed, with almost all they had con-

152 MARY AND I.

tained. A few books were saved, and the chief part
of Miss Spooner's wardrobe and bedding, her room
being on the corner away from where the fire com
menced. Before noon the fire-fiend had done his work,
and our mission houses were a mass of coals and ashes.
Very little had been saved. The potatoes in the cellars
were much burned and cooked, but, underneath, a por
tion of them were found to be in a good state of preser
vation.

The adobe church, that stood partly under the hill,
was the only building that escaped. Thither we removed
what few things we had saved, and our Dakota neighbors
were very kind, bringing us what they could ; while Mr.
Martin McLeod, the trader, sent us blankets and other
things to meet the present necessity, partly as a gift, and
partly to be paid for. In a few days Dr. Williamson
came up from Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze with further supplies.
And all along through the spring and summer, as our
friends in the East heard of our loss, the boxes and barrels
were sent for our relief. It did us good to know that we
had so many true-hearted friends.

r

\

MARY A. RIGGS.

CHAPTER IX.

1854-1856. — Simon Anawangmane. — Rebuilding after the Fire.

— Visit of Secretary Treat. — Change of Plan. — Hazelwood
Station. — Circular Saw Mill. — Mission Buildings. — Chapel.

— Civilized Community. — Making Citizens. — Boarding-
School. — Educating our own Children. — Financial Difficul
ties. — The Lord Provides. — A Great Affliction. — Smith
Burgess Williamson. — " Aunt Jane." — Bunyan's Pilgrim in
Dakota.

WHEN, after the fire, we were somewhat comfortably
domiciled in the adobe church, the time came for our
regular communion. The disaster had made all our
hearts tender, and the opportunity for helpfulness on
the part of our native church members, which had been
improved by many of them, had drawn us toward them.
It was sn appropriate time to remember what Christ
had done for us. And just then we were made very
glad by the return of Simon Anawangmane from his
long wanderings. Some years before, he had broken
away from strong drink, but he was so overcome with
remorse and shame that he could not get up courage
enough to come back and take again upon him the
oath of fealty to the wounded Lord. He edged his way
back. He had often come and sat on the door-step, not
daring to venture in. Then he came in and sat down in
a corner. By and by he took more courage. He had
talked with Dr. Williamson at Yellow Medicine, who
gave him a letter, saying, " I think Simon should now

153

154 MAKY AND I.

be restored to the church." We did reinstate him.
And for more than a score of years since his restoration,
Simon has lived, so far as we can see, a true Christian
life. For nearly all that time he has been a ruling elder
in the church, and for ten years past a licensed exhorter.

"We decided almost immediately to rebuild our burnt
houses, and as soon as we had taken care of the pota
toes in the cellars, that were not too much injured, we
set about getting out timbers. It was a slow process to
saw boards and timbers with the whip-saw, but up to
this time this had been our only way of making material
for building. This work had been pushed on so well
that when, by the first of June, Secretary S. B. Treat,
of the mission house in Boston, made us a visit, we had
gotten out material for the frame of our house. His
visit, at this time, was exceedingly gratifying and helpful
to us all. It was good to counsel with such a sagacious,
true, thoughtful, Christian counsellor as Mr. Treat.

The whole line of mission work was carefully reviewed.
The result was that we gave up our plan of rebuilding at
Lac-qui-parle and sought a new place. The reasons for
this were : first, we had from the beginning been widely
separated in our work, spreading out our labors and
attempting to cultivate as much of the field as possible.
This had obviously had its disadvantages. We were too
far apart to cheer and help each other. Now, when we
were reduced to two families, Mr. Treat advised concen
trating our forces. That was in accordance with our
own inclinations. And, secondly, the Yellow Medicine
had been made the headquarters of the Indian Agency
for the four thousand Upper Indians. The drift W.MS
down toward that point. It was found that we could
take with us almost all the Christian part of our corn-

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 155

munity. The idea was to commence a settlement of the
civilized and Christianized Dakotas, at some point within
convenient distance from the Agency, to receive the help
which the government had by treaty pledged itself to
give. And so we got on our horses and rode down to
Dr. Williamson's, twenty-five or thirty miles; and Mr.
Treat and Dr. Williamson and Miss Spoon er and Mary
and I rode over the country above Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze,
which was selected as the site for the new station, after
ward called Hazelwood. At Dr. Williamson's, we had
a memorable meeting, at which Mr. Treat told our
Dakota church members of a visit he had made to the
Choctaws and Cherokees. We also had consultations on
various matters ; among which was that of getting out
a new Dakota hymn-book, which should contain the
music as well as the hymns. A new departure was thus
inaugurated in our mission work, and, in after years,
time was often counted from this visit of Secretary
Treat.

The building materials we had prepared at Lac-qui-
parle were partly hauled by land and partly floated
down the river; and by the month of September our
house was so far finished that we removed the family
down. Also, we had erected a small frame which served
for various purposes, as school-room and dwelling. But,
while the work was progressing, Mary had quite a sudden
and severe attack of sickness. It was nearly sundown
when the messenger arrived, and Dr. Williamson and I
had a night ride over the prairie. The shadows looked
weii'd and ghostly — perhaps tinged by the mental state
of the beholder. At midnight we reached the sufferer,
who was, by wise doctoring and skilful nursing, restored
in a week,

156 MAKY AND I.

The Dakotas entered at once into the idea of the new
settlement ; and no sooner had we selected the spot for
our building and set a breaking-plough to work in making
a mission field, than they were at work in the same line.
The desirable places were soon selected, and log cabins
went up, the most of which were replaced by frame
buildings or brick within a year or two. The frames
were put up by themselves, with the assistance we could
give them, — the brick houses were built by the
government.

We had been long enough schooling ourselves in the
use of the whip-saw. That was one of the processes of
labor that, years before, I had determined not to learn.
I had acquired some skill in the use of the broadaxe,
and rather liked it. I had applied my knowledge of
mathematics in various ways to the work of framing
houses, and it became a pleasure. But I thought I
should avoid the whip-saw. The time, however, came
when I needed a sawyer greatly, and could obtain none,
and so took hold myself.

But now we decided that it would be more economical
to make boards by horse and ox power than by man
power alone ; and so the committee at Boston author
ized the purchase of a small circular saw-mill. This
proved quite a help in our civilized community. It
enabled us to put up in the next season a house for
a small boarding-school, and also a neat church building.
This latter was erected and finished at a cost of about
$700, only $200 of which was mission funds. At this
time the Indians were receiving money annuities. It
was paid them in gold, about $10 for each individual.
So that the men received from thirty to fifty dollars.
At a propitious time I made a tea-party, which was

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 157

attended by our civilized men largely, and the result was
that, with some assistance from white people, they were
able to raise about five hundred dollars. It was a success
beyond my most sanguine expectations.

We had now such a respectable community of young
men, who had cut off their hair and exchanged the dress
of the Dakotas for that of the white man, and whose
wants now were very different from the annuity Dakotas
generally, that we took measures to organize them into a
separate band, which we called the Hazelwood Republic.
They elected their President for two years, and other
needed officers, and were, without any difficulty, recog
nized by the agent as a separate band. A number of
these men were half-breeds, who were, by the organic
law of Minnesota, citizens. The constitution of the State
provided that Indians also might become citizens by sat
isfying a court of their progress in civilization.

A few years after the organization of this civilized
community, I took eight or ten of the men to meet the
court at Mankato, but, the court deciding that a knowl
edge of English was necessary to comply with the laws
of the State, only one of my men was passed into citizen
ship.

A part of the plan of our new community was a mis
sion boarding-school. Almost from the beginning, we
had been making trial of educating Dakota children in
our own families. Mary had a little girl given her the
first fall after we came to Lac-qui-parle ; she was the
daughter of Eagle Help, my Bible reader; but after she
had washed and dressed her up she stayed only a month,
and then ran away. The Messrs. Pond raised one or two
in their families. Dr. Williamson had several Dakota
children when at Kaposia, and afterward at Pay-zhe-hoo-

158 MARY AND I.

ta-ze. Mr. Adams had at one time a boarding-school of
a half-dozen at Lac-qui-parle, and we had two or three in
our family. Now the work was to be attempted on a
larger scale.

The Hazel wood boarding-school was for a while cared
for by Miss Ruth Pettijohn, and afterward by Mr. and
Mrs. H. D. Cunningham. Counting those in Dr. Will
iamson's family and our own, the boarding scholars
amounted to twenty. This was the extent of our ambi
tion in that line at that time. A large boarding-school
demands a large outlay for buildings, as well as for its
continual support. The necessities of our mission work
did not then demand the outlay, nor could it have been
easily obtained from the funds of the Board. Connected
with this school, as teachers, were Mrs. Annie B. Ackley
and Miss Eliza Huggins and Isabella B. Riggs.

"We had reached the time, in 1854, when it became nec
essary to enter upon some plan to educate our children
beyond what we could give them in our Indian home.
Three years before this, Alfred had been at school in
Illinois, but that was only a temporary arrangement ;
now he was seventeen years old and prepared to enter
college. Mary and I often discussed the question of
ways and means. It was our desire to give our children
as good an education as we possessed ourselves — at least,
to give them a chance of obtaining such an education.
We did not feel that our position as missionaries should
make this impossible, and yet how it was to be accom
plished we could not see. We had neither of us any
patrimony. In this respect we were on an equality.
She received $100 from her father's estate, and I but a
little more than that, and we did not know of any rich

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 159

friends to whom we could apply for aid. Our salary had
been small from the beginning. We entered the mission
work at a time when the Board was cutting down every
where. So that we started on a salary or allowance of
about $250, and for the first quarter of a century it did
not materially differ from the basis of a Methodist circuit
rider in the West of olden times; that is, $100 apiece,
and $50 for each child. At this time, when our family
numbered eight, we had an allowance of $500. We were
both close calculators, and we never ran in debt. We
could live comfortably with our children at home, each
doing something to carry the burdens of life. But how
could we support one or more away at school ? A third
of the whole family allowance would not suffice to pay
the expenses of one, at the most economical of our col
leges or schools. To begin, the work required faith.
We determined to begin, by sending Alfred to Knox
College, at Galesburg, Illinois. From year to year, we
were able to keep him there until he finished the course.
Two years after sending Alfred, we sent Isabella to the
Western Female Seminary, at Oxford, Ohio. This, how
ever, we were enabled to do by the help which Mrs.
Blaisdell and other Christian friends of the Second Pres
byterian Church of Cincinnati gave.

With two away at the same time, " the barrel of meal
did not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail." In various ways
the Lord helped us. One year our garden produced a
large surplus of excellent potatoes, which the Indian
agent bought at a very remunerative price. From year
to year our faith was strengthened. " Jehovah Jireh "
became our motto. He stood by us and helped us in the
work of education all through the twenty-three years that
have followed, until the last of Mary's eight children has

160 MARY AND I.

finished at the Beloit high school. We have redeemed
our promise and pledge made to each other. We have
given, by the Lord's help, each and all of our children a
chance to become as good or better scholars than their
father and mother were.

The 3d of March was associated in our minds with
calamity from the burning of our houses at Lac-qui-parle.
But two years later, or in the spring of 1856, the 3d of
.March brought a great shadow over Dr. Williamson's
household. Smith Burgess Williamson was just coming
up to young manhood. He was large of his age, a very
manly boy. On this 3d of March he was engaged in
hauling up firewood with an ox-team. He probably
attempted to get on his loaded sled while the oxen were
in motion, and, missing his step, fell under the runner.
He was dragged home, a distance of some rods, and his
young life was entirely crushed out. We were immedi
ately summoned over from Hazelwood. Human sympa
thy could go but a little way toward reaching the bottom
of such a trouble. It was like other sorrows that had
come upon us, and we were prepared to sit down in
silence with our afflicted friends, and help them think
out, "It is the Lord"; "I was dumb because thou didst
it." The family had been already schooled in affliction,
and this helped to prepare them better for the Master's
work.

During these passing years, the educational work among
the Dakotas was progressing beyond what it had done
previously. Our boarding-school at Hazelwood, in charge
of H. D. Cunningham, was full and doing good service.
Our civilized and Christian community had come to desire
and appreciate somewhat the education of their children.
At Dr. Williamson's, also, several were taken into the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 161

family, and the day-school prospered. Miss Jane S.
Williamson, a maiden sister of the doctor, had come to
the land of the Dakotas when Mary and I returned in
1843. From the association and connection of her father's
family with slavery in South Carolina, she had grown up
with a great interest in the colored people. She had
taught colored schools in Ohio, when it was very unpop
ular, even in a free state, to educate the blacks. When
she came to the Dakotas, her enthusiasm in the work of
lifting up the colored race was at once transferred to the
red men, and she became an indefatigable worker in
their education.

She often carried cakes and nuts in her pocket, and had
something to give to this and that one, to draw them to
her school. The present race of Dakotas remember
Aunt Jane, as we called her, or Dowan Dootawin, Red
Song Woman, as they called her, with tender interest,
and many of them owe more to her than they can under
stand.

At this time, a translation of the first part of John
Bunyan's Pilgrim, which I had prepared, was printed by
the American Tract Society, and at once became a popu
lar and profitable reading-book for the Dakotas.

CHAPTER X.

1857-1862. — Spirit Lake. — Massacres by Inkpadoota. — The Cap
tives. — Delivery of Mrs. Marble and Miss Gardner. —Excite
ment. — Inkpadoota's Son Killed. — United States Soldiers. -
Major Sherman. — Indian Councils. — Great Scare. — Goim
Away. — Indians Sent After Scarlet End. — Quiet Restored. -
Children at School. — Quarter-Century Meeting. — John P,
Williamson at Red Wood. — Dedication of Chapel.

BY the northern line of Iowa, where the head-waten
of the Des Moines come out of Minnesota, is a lake, 01
group of lakes, called the " Minne Wakan," Mysterious
Water, or, as the name goes, Spirit Lake. Sometime
in 1855, this beautiful spot of earth was found and occu
pied by seven or eight white families, far in advance oi
other white settlements. In the spring of 1857, there
were in this neighborhood and at Springfield, ten or
fifteen miles above on the Des Moines, and in Minnesota,
nearly fifty white persons. During the latter part of
that winter the snows in Western Iowa and Minnesota
were very deep, so that traveling on the prairies was
attended with great difficulty.

It appears that during the winter a few families of
annuity Sioux, belonging to the somewhat roving band
of Leaf Shooters, had, according to their habit, made a
hunting expedition down into Iowa, on the Little Sioux.
Inkpadoota, or Scarlet End, and his sons were the princi
pal men. The deep snows made game scarce and hunt
ing difficult, so that when, in the month of March, this

162

FOETY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 163

party of Dakotas came into the Spirit Lake settlement,
they were in a bad humor from hunger, and attempted at
once to levy blackmail upon the inhabitants. Their
wishes not being readily complied with, the Indians pro
ceeded to help themselves, which at once brought on a
conflict with the white people, and the result was that
the Indians massacred almost the entire settlement, kill
ing about forty persons and taking four women captive.

Some one carried the news to Fort Ridgely, and a
company of soldiers was sent out to that part of the coun
try, but with small prospect of finding and punishing the
Indians. The deep snows prevented rapid marching,
and the party of Scarlet End, who were still in the Spirit
Lake country, managed to see the white soldiers, albeit
the soldiers could not discover them.

Soon after this event, we, at the Yellow Medicine,
heard of it by a courier who came up the Minnesota. It
proved to be quite as bad as represented. But nothing
could be done at that season of the year, either to obtain
the captives or punish the perpetrators. So the spring
passed. When the snows had melted away, and the
month of May had come, there came a messenger from
Lac-qui-parle to Dr. Williamson and myself, saying that
Sounding Heavens and Gray Foot, two sons of our
friend Spirit Walker, had brought in one of the captive
women taken by Scarlet End's party, and asking us to
come up and get her that she might be restored to her
friends.

We lost no time in going up to Lac-qui-parle. At the
trader's establishment, then in the keeping of Weeyooha,
the father of Nawangmane win, who was the wife of
Sounding Heavens, we found Mrs. Marble, rather a
small but good-looking white woman, apparently not

164 MARY AND I.

more than twenty-five years old. She was busily en
gaged with the aforesaid Mrs. Sounding Heavens, in
making a calico dress for herself. When I spoke to her
in English, she was at first quite reserved. I asked if she
wanted to return to her friends. She replied : " I am
among my friends."

She had indeed found friends in the two young men
who had purchased her from her captors. They took her
to their mother's tent who had many years before be
come a member of the Lac-qui-parle church, and been
baptized with the Christian name of Rebekah. They
clothed her up in the best style of Dakota women. They
gave her the best they had to eat. They brought her to
their planting-place, and furnished her with materials
with which to dress again like a white woman. It was
no wonder she said, " I am among my friends." But,
after talking awhile, she concluded it would be best for
her to find her white friends. She did not before under
stand that these Dakota young men had bought her,
and carefully brought her in, with the hope of being
properly rewarded. They were not prepared to keep her
as a white woman, and really, with her six or seven
weeks' experience as an Indian, she would hardly care to
choose that kind of life.

Mrs. Marble's husband had been killed with those who
were slain at Spirit Lake. Her story was that four
white women were reserved as captives. They were
made to carry burdens and walk through the melting
snow and water. When they came to the Big Sioux, it
was very full. The Indians cut down a tree, and the
white women were expected to walk across on that. One
of the woman fell off, and her captor shot her in the
water. Her fellow-captives thought she was better off

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 165

dead than alive. When Mrs. Marble was rescued from
her captors, two others still lived, Mrs. Nobles and Miss
Abbie Gardner. The Indians were then west of the Big
Sioux, in the valley of the James or Dakota River.

We took Mrs. Marble down, accompanied by Sounding
Heavens, Gray Foot, and their father, Wakanmane. She
remained a few days at our mission home at Hazelwood,
and in the meantime Major Flandreau, who was then
Indian agent, paid the young men $500 in gold, and gave
them a promissory note for the like amount. This was a
very creditable reward.

But what was most important to be done, just then, was
to rescue the other two women, if possible. We had
Dakota men whom we could trust on such a mission
better than we could trust ourselves. There was Paul
Mazakootamane, the president of the Hazelwood Re
public. White people said he was lazy. There was
truth in that. He did not like to work. But he was a
real diplomatist. He could talk well, and he was skilled
in managing Indians. For such a work there was no
better man than he. Then, there was John Otherday,
the white man's friend. He could not talk like Paul ; but
he had rare executive ability, and he was a fearless
fellow. There was no better second man than he. For
the third man we secured Mr. Grass. These three we
selected, and the agent sent them to treat for Miss
Gardner and Mrs. Nobles. They took with them an extra
horse and a lot of goods. In about three weeks they
returned, but only brought Miss Gardner. Mrs. Nobles
had been killed before they reached Scarlet End's camp.

As a consequence of this Spirit Lake trouble, we lived
in a state of excitement all the summer. At one time
the report came that Inkpadoota's sons, one or more of

166 MARY AND 1.

them, had ventured into the Yellow Medicine settlement.
News was at once taken to Agent Flandreau, who came
up with a squad of soldiers from Fort Ridgely, and, with
the help of John Otherday and Enos Good Hail, and
others, this son of a murderer was killed, and his wife
taken prisoner. The excitement was very great, for
Scarlet End's family had friends among White Lodge's
people at the Yellow Medicine.

Then came up Maj. T. W. Sherman with his battery.
The Spirit Lake murderers must be punished, but the
orders from Washington were that the annuity Indians
must do it. To persuade them to undertake this was not
an easy task. It is very doubtful whether the plan was
a wise one. There were too many Dakotas who sympa
thized with Inkpadoota. This appeared in the daring of
a young Dakota, who went into Major Sherman's camp
and stabbed a soldier. He was immediately taken up and
placed under guard, but it was a new element in the
complication.

Council after council was held. Little Crow, and the
chiefs and people generally of Red Wood, were at the
Yellow Medicine. The Indians said to Superintendent
Cullen and Major Sherman, " We want you to punish Ink-
1 adoota; we can't do it." But they were told that the
Groat Father required them to do it, as a condition of
receiving their annuities. In the meantime, several hun
dred Yanktonais Sioux came over from the James River,
who had complaints of their own against the government.
One day there was a grand council in progress, just out
side of Major Sherman's camp. The Dakota who stabbed
the white soldier managed to get his manacles partly off,
and ran for the council. The guard fired, and wounded
him in the feet and ankles, some shots passing into the

FOE-TY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 167

council circle. From the Indian side guns were fired,
and the white people fled to the soldiers' camp, the
Dakota prisoner being taken into the keeping of his
friends.

For a while it was uncertain whether we were to have
war or peace. The hundreds of Sioux teepees, which
covered the prairie between Dr. Williamson's place and
the agency, were suddenly taken down, and the whole
camp was in motion. This looked like war. Dr.
Williamson asked for a guard of soldiers. The request
could not be granted. The doctor and his folks, they
said, could come to the soldiers' carnp. But in an hour
or two, when the good doctor saw the teepees going up
again, a couple of miles off, he was content to remain
without a guard — there would not be war just then.
The Dakota prisoner could have been reclaimed, but it
was thought best to let him go, as the white soldier was
getting well.

That evening, when I returned home from the council,
I found Aunt Ruth Pettijohn and our children in a state
of alarm. Mary had gone down below on a visit. The
Sioux camp was all around us, and we were five miles
away from the soldiers' camp. What might take place
within a few days we could not tell. It seemed as if the
nervous strain would be less if they could go away for
awhile. And so the next morning we put our house in
the charge of Simon, and we all started down to the
Lower Sioux Agency. We had no settled plan, and
when we learned that matters were being arranged, we
were at once ready to return, having met Mary with a
company of friends, who were on their way up to the
mission. Alfred was coming home to spend his vacation,
and had brought with him a college friend; and Mrs.

168 MARY AND I.

Wilson, a sister of Dr. Williamson, and her daughter,
Sophronia, and Miss Maggie Voris were come to make a
visit.

When we reached home, the Yanktonais had departed,
and Little Crow, with a hundred Dakota braves, was
starting out to seek Inkpadoota and his band. They
came upon them by a lake, and the attack was reported
as made in the night, in the reeds and water. After
ward, when in Washington, Little Crow claimed to have
killed a dozen or more, but the claim was regarded by the
Indians as untrue. The campaign being over, the Indians
returned and received their annuities, and thus was the
Spirit Lake affair passed over. There was no sufficient
punishment inflicted. There was no fear of the white
soldiers imparted; perhaps rather a contempt for the
power of the government was the result in the minds of
White Lodge and other sympathizers with Inkpadoota.
And even Little Crow and the Lower Sioux were educated
thereby for the outbreak of five years later.

Isabella Burgess had been two years in the Western
Female Seminary, at Oxford, Ohio, and Alfred Long-ley
was completing his academical course at Knox College.
Isabella came to see him graduate, and then together
they started for their Indian home in Minnesota. It was
about the first of July, 1858, and at midnight, when the
steamboat on which they were traveling, having landed
at Red Wing and discharged some freight, and pushed
out again into the river, was found to be on fire. The
alarm was given, and the passengers waked up, and the
boat immediately turned again to the landing ; but the
fire, having caught in some cotton bales on the front deck,
spread so rapidly that it was with difficulty the passen
gers made their escape, the greater part of them only in

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 169

their night-dress. Their baggage was all lost. But the
good people of Red Wing cared for the sufferers, and
started them homeward, with such clothing as could be
furnished. Of the catastrophe we knew nothing, until I
met the children at St. Peter, whither they came by
steamboat. This, and what had gone before, gave us
something of a reputation of being a fiery family, and the
impression was increased somewhat when,, nearly two
years later, Martha Taylor, in her second year at Oxford,
escaped by night from the burning Seminary building.

After Alfred's return, in the summer of 1858, he spent
a year at Hazelwood, in teaching a government school,
and then joined the Theological Seminary at Chicago.
In the summer of 1860, the absent ones were all at home.
During the six years we had been at Hazelwood, two
other children had been given us, Robert Baird and
Mary Cornelia Octavia, which made a very respectable
little flock of eight.

Twenty-five years had passed since Dr. Williamson
came to the Dakotas. Many changes had taken place.
It was fitting that the two families which remained
should, in some proper way, put up a quarter-century
milestone. And so we arranged an out-door gathering,
at which we had food for the body and food for the
mind. Among other papers read at this time was one
which I prepared with some care, giving a short bio
graphical sketch of all the persons who up to that time
had been connected with the Dakota mission ; a copy of
which was afterward placed in the library of the Histori
cal Society of Minnesota.

Ever since the removal of the Lower Indians up to
their reservation, there had been several members of Dr.

170 MAKY AND I.

Williamson's church at Kaposia, living near the Red
Wood Agency. They would form a very good nucleus
of a church, and make a good beginning for a new sta
tion. This had been in our thought for several years,
but only when, in 1861, John P. Williamson finished his
theological studies at Lane Seminary, had we the abil
ity to take possession of that part of the field. While
we waited, Bishop Whipple came up and opened a mis
sion, placing there S. D. Hiiiman. Still, it was thought
advisable to carry out our original plan, and, accord
ingly, young Mr. Williamson took up his abode there,
organized a church of ten or twelve members, and pro
ceeded to erect a chapel. In the last days of the year
1861, I went down, by invitation, to assist in the dedica
tion of the new church.

That journey, both going and returning, was my
sorest experience of winter travel, but it helped to start
forward this new church organization, which was com
mencing very auspiciously. Mr. Williamson had his
arrangements all made to erect a dwelling-house early
in the next season. And when the outbreak took
place in August, 1862, as Providence would have it,
he had gone to Ohio, as we all supposed, to consummate
an engagement which he had made while in the semi
nary.

CHAPTER XL

1861-1862. — Republican Administration. — Its Mistakes.— Chang
ing Annuities. — Results. — Returning from General Assembly.

— A Marriage in St. Paul.— D. Wilson Moore and Wife.—
Delayed Payment. — Difficulty with the Sissetons. — Peace
Again. — Recruiting for the Southern War. — Seventeenth of
August, 1862. — The Outbreak. — Remembering Christ's Death.

— Massacres Commenced. — Capt. Marsh's Company. — Our
Flight. — Reasons Therefor. — Escape to an Island.— Final
Leaving.— A Wounded Man.— Traveling on the Prairie. —
Wet Night.— Taking a Picture.— Change of Plan.— Night
Travel. — Going Around Fort Ridgely. — Night Scares. — Safe
Passage. — Four Men Killed. — The Lord Leads Us. — Sabbath.

— Reaching the Settlements. — Mary at St. Anthony.

WHEN President Lincoln's administration commenced,
we were glad to welcome a change of Indian agents.
But, after a little trial, we found that a Republican ad
ministration was quite as likely to make mistakes in the
management of Indians as a Democratic one. Hardly
had the new order of things been inaugurated, in 1861,
\vhen Superintendent Clark W. Thompson announced to
the Sioux gathered at Yellow Medicine that the Great
Father was going to make them all very glad. They had
received their annuities for that year, but were told that
the government would give them a further bounty in the
autumn. At one of Thompson's councils, Paul made
one of his most telling speeches. He presented many
^grievances, which the new administration promised to
redress. But when the superintendent was asked where

171

172 MARY AND I.

this additional gift came from, he could not tell —

O /

only it was to be great, and would make them very
glad.

By such words, the four thousand Upper Sioux were
encouraged to expect great things. Accordingly, the
Sissetons from Lake Traverse came down in the autumn,
when the promised goods should have been there, but
low water in the Minnesota and Mississippi delayed
their arrival. The Indians waited, and had to be fed
by Agent Galbraith. And when the goods came the
deep snows had come also, and the season for hunting
was past. Moreover, the great gift was only $10,000
worth of goods, or $2.50 apiece ! While they had waited
many of the men could have earned from $50 to $100 by
hunting. It was a terrible mistake of the government at
Washington. The result was that of the Upper Sioux
the agent was obliged to feed more than a thousand per
sons all winter.

The Lower Sioux were suspicious of the matter, and
refused to receive their ten thousand dollars' worth of
goods until they could know whence it came. By and
by the Democrats in the country learned that the admin
istration had determined on changing the money annu
ity into goods, and had actually commenced the opera
tion, sending on the year before $20,000 of the $70,000
which would be due next summer. The knowledge of
this planning of bad faith in the government greatly
exasperated the annuity Indians, and was undoubtedly
the primal cause which brought on the outbreak of the
next summer. Men who were opposed to the Republican
administration and the Southern war had now a grand
opportunity to work upon the fears and the hopes of the
Indians, and make them badly affected toward the gov-

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 173

ernment. And they seemed to have carried it a little too
far, so that when the conflict came it was most disastrous
for them.

As the summer of 1862 came on, the Washington gov
ernment recognized their mistake, and sought to rectify
it by replacing the $20,000 which had been taken from the
money of the July payment. But to do this they were
obliged to await a new appropriation, and this delayed
the bringing on of the money full six weeks beyond the
regular time of payment. If the money had been on
hand the first of July, instead of reaching Fort Ridgely
after the outbreak commenced, one can not say but that
the Sioux war would have been prevented.

About the first of July, I returned from Ohio, whither
I had been to attend the General Assembly in Cincinnati,
and to bring home Martha Taylor, Avho had just com
pleted the course at College Hill. After the fire at Ox
ford, she had accepted Rev. F. Y. Vail's invitation to go
to his institution near Cincinnati. There she remained
until the end of the year. Then Isabella and Anna went
on — the latter going to Mr. Vail's seminary, and the for
mer attending the senior class of the Western Female
Seminary, under a special arrangement, before the semi
nary was rebuilt. So that now both the older girls had
completed the course.

On our return this time, we had with us Marion Robert
son, a young woman with a little Dakota blood, who had
been spending some time in Ohio, and who was affianced
to a Mr. Hunter, a government carpenter at the Lower
Sioux agency. By arrangement Mr. Hunter met us in
St. Paul, and I married them one evening, in the par
lors of the Merchant's Hotel. Six or seven weeks after
this, Mr. Hunter was killed in the outbreak.

174 MARY AND I.

At that marriage in the hotel were present D. Wilson
Moore and his bride from Fisslerville, New Jersey, near
Philadelphia. Mr. Moore was of the firm of Moore
Brothers (engaged extensively in glass-manufacturing),
had just married a young bride, and they had come to
Minnesota on their wedding trip. We had reached home
only a few days before, when, to our surprise, Mr. Moore
and his wife drove up to our mission. They had heard
that the Indian payment was soon to be made, and so
had come up ; but, not finding accommodations at the
agency, they came on to see if we would not take them
in. We had a large family, but if they would be satis
fied with our fare, and take care of themselves, Mary
would do the best she could for them. This will account
for the way in which Mrs. Moore lost all her silk dresses.

The whole four thousand Indians were now gathered
at the Yellow Medicine. The Sissetons of Lake Traverse
had hoed their corn and come down. It was the regular
time for receiving their annuities, before the corn needed
watching. But the annuity money had not come. The
agent did not know when it would come. He had riot
sent for them and he could not feed them — he had barely
enough provisions to keep them while the payment was
being made. The truth wras, he had used up the provis
ions on them in the previous winter. So he told them
he would give them some flour and pork, and then they
must go home and wait until he called them. They took
the provisions, but about going home they could not see
it in that way. It was a hundred miles up to their plant
ing-place, and to trudge up there and back, with little or
nothing to eat, and carry their tents and baggage and
children on horse-back and on dog-back and on woman-
back, was more than they cared to do. Besides, there

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 175

was nothing for them to eat at home. They must go out
on the buffalo hunt, and then they might miss their money.
And so they preferred to stay, and beg and steal, or
starve.

But stealing and begging furnished but a very scanty
fare, and starving was not pleasant. The young men
talked the matter over, and concluded that the flour and
pork in the warehouse belonged to them, and there could
not be much wrong in their taking it. And so one day
they marched up to the storehouse with axes in hand, and
battered down the door. They had commenced to carry
out the flour when the lieutenant with ten soldiers turned
the howitzer upon them. This led them to desist? for the
Dakotas were unarmed. But they were greatly enraged,
and threatened to bring their guns and kill the little
squad of white soldiers. And what made this seem more
likely, the Sioux tents were at once struck and the camp
removed off several miles. Agent Galbraith sent up word
that he wanted help. And when Mr. Moore and I drove
down, he said, " If there is anything between the lids of
the Bible that will meet this case, I wish you would use
it." I told him I thought there was ; and advised him to
call a council of the principal men and talk the thing
over. Whereupon I went to the tent of Standing Buf
falo, the head chief of the Sissetons, and arranged for a
council that afternoon.

The chiefs and braves gathered. The young men who
had broken the door down were there. The Indians
argued that they were starving, and that the flour and
pork in the warehouse had been purchased with their
money. It was wrong to break in the door, but now they
would authorize the agent to take of their money and
repair the door. Whereupon the agent agreed to give

176 MARY AND I.

them some provisions, and insisted on their going home,
which they promised to do. The Sissetons left on the
morrow, and so far as they were concerned the difficulty
was over ; for on reaching home they started on a buffalo
hunt. Peace and quiet now reigned at the Yellow Medi
cine. Mr. Moore occupied himself in shooting pigeons,
and we all became quite attached to Mrs. Moore and
himself.

In the meantime an effort, was made at the agencies,
among half-breeds and employes, to enlist soldiers for the
Southern war. Quite a number were enlisted, and when
the trouble came Agent Galbraith was below with these
recruits. Several strangers were in the country. It was
afterward claimed that there were men here in the inter
ests of the South. I did not see any of that class. But
some photographers were there. Adrian J. Ebell, a stu
dent of Yale College, was taking stereoscopic views, and
a gentleman from St. Paul also.

The 17th of August was the Sabbath. It was sacra
mental Sabbath at Hazelwood. As our custom was, botli
churches came together to celebrate the Lord's death.
Our house was well filled, and we have always remem
bered that Sabbath as one of precious interest, for it was
the last time we were to meet in that beautiful little mis
sion chapel. A great trial of our faith and patience was
coming upon us, and we knew it not. But the dear
Christ knew that both we and the native Christians
needed just such a quiet rest with him before the trials
came.

While we at Hazelwood and Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze were
thus engaged on that Sabbath of August 17th, the out
break was commenced in the border white settlements

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 177

at Acton, Minn. As usual, the difficulty was com
menced at a grog-shop. Some four or five Indians made
demands which were not complied with, whereat they
began to kill the whites. That night they reached the
villages at the Lower Sioux Agency, and a council of
Avar was called.

Something of this kind had been meditated, and talked
of, and prepared for undoubtedly. Some time before this,
they had formed the Tee-yo-tee-pe, or Soldiers' Lodge,
which is only organized on special occasions, for the hunt
or for war. Some negotiations were probably going on
with the Winnebagoes and Ojibwas. But they were not
perfected. Several Winnebagoes were at this time at
the Lower Agency, but they do not appear to have been
there for the purpose of the outbreak. In the council
held that night, Little Crow is reported to have expressed
his regret that the matter was precipitated upon them,
but he yielded to the argument that their hands were
now bloody.

The attack was commenced in the early morning at the
stores, Mr. James W. Lynd, at Myrick's store, being the
first white man shot down. So the ball rolled. Many
were killed and some escaped. Word of the rising was
carried to Fort Ridgely, and Captain Marsh was sent up
to quell it. The Indians met his company of fifty men at
the ferry, and killed half of them there, the rest making
their escape with difficulty. These things had been going
on during the day, forty miles from us, but we knew it
not. Five miles below, at the Yellow Medicine, they had
heard of it by noon. The Indians gathered to consult
what they would ,do. Some, we learned, gave their voice
for killing the white people, but more were in favor of
only taking the goods and property. The physician at

178 MARY AND I.

the Yellow Medicine was absent, and a young man started
down that day with the doctor's wife and children in a
buggy. Before they reached Red Wood, they were met
by two Dakota men — the white man was killed and the
woman and children taken captive.

The sun was getting low Monday evening when we at
Hazelwood heard of what was going on. Mr. Antoine
Reriville, one of the elders of my church, came running
in much excited, and said the Indians were killing white
people. We thought it must be only a drinking quarrel.
The statement needed to be repeated and particularized
somewhat before we could believe it. Soon others came
in and told more. Blackness seemed to be gathering
upon all faces. The parents came to the boarding-school
and took away their children. For several years Mary
had kept Angelique and Agnes Renville. At this time,
the older one was in Ohio, and the younger one went
home with her mother.

Jonas Pettijohn, an old associate in mission work at
Lac-qui-parle, had been for some years a government
teacher at Red Iron's village, about fifteen miles above
us. He had now been released, and was removing his
family. Mrs. Pettijohn and the children had reached our
house. Mr. Pettijohn came in the dusk of the evening
with his last load, which he was bringing with my horse
team. The Indian men who had brought down his
goods, when they heard of the 6meute, started back im
mediately, and, meeting Mr. Pettijohn, took the horses.
They justified themselves by sayi-ng that somebody would
take them.

Thus, as the darkness came on, we became sure that
our Dakota friends believed the reports. In the gloaming,
strange men appeared at our stables, and others of our

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 179

horses were taken. A dozen of our neighbor men came,
and said they would stand guard with their guns. As the
evening progressed, we sent a messenger down to the
Yellow Medicine, who brought word that the stores were
surrounded by Indians, and would be broken in soon.
Mr. Givens, the sub-agent, sent up a note asking me to
come down very early in the morning. Some of the
Christian Dakota women gathered into our house, and we
prayed, and sang " God is the refuge of his saints."

It was after midnight before we thought of leaving.
The young folks had lain down and slept awhile. By
and by Paul came, and asked me to give him some blue
cloth I had on hand — he must dress like an Indian, to be
safe. And they evidently began to feel that we might
not be safe, and that our staying would endanger them.
This was made the more serious because of Mrs. Moore
and our three grown daughters. Indian men would kill
us to get possession of them. Thus the case was stated
by our neighbors. Afterward we had good reason to know
that they reasoned rightly.

And so we waked up the children and made prepara
tions to depart. But it was only to be temporary. The
plan was to go down to an island in the Minnesota River,
and remain until the danger was overpast. Mr. Moore
looked to his revolver, the only reliable weapon among
us. Thomas and Henry got their double-barrel shot-gun.
Mary put up a bag of provisions, but, unfortunately, we
forgot it when we departed. Fortunately again, it was
brought to us in the morning by Zoe, a Dakota woman.
Each one had a little baggage, but there was not
enough extra clothing in the company to make them com
fortable at night. When the daylight came, we were all
over on the island, but our team was left, and was stolen,

180 MAEY AND I.

with the exception of one horse. So we were in rather
a helpless condition as regards further escape.

On this little island we were away from the excitement
and present danger ; but how long it would be safe for us
to remain there was quite uncertain. We could trust our
own Indians that we should not be personally injured ;
but how soon strange Indians would find our hiding-
place, we could not tell. During the forenoon I crossed
back and went to the village, to learn the progress of
events. They did not seem to be encouraging. The
stores at the Yellow Medicine had been sacked. The
white people had all left in the early morning, being con
voyed by John Otherday. The only safe course open to
us appeared to be in getting away also. It was after
midday when we learned that Andrew Hunter and Dr.
Williamson's young folks had succeded in coming away
with both a horse team and an ox team. They had some
flour and other provisions with them, and had driven along
the doctor's cattle. Moreover, they had succeeded in
crossing the Minnesota at a point a mile or two below
where we then were. From the island we could wade
over to the north side. This we proceeded to do, leaving
the only trunk that had been brought this far, by Mr.
Cunningham's sister.

Andrew Hunter drove one of his wagons around on
the prairie to meet our party as we emerged from the
ravine, each carrying a little bundle. The women and
children who could not walk were arranged with the
bundles in the wagon. Mr. Cunningham was successful
in getting one of his horses — the other had been appro
priated by an Indian, together with mine. His one horse
he attached to my buggy and brought it over the river,
and we proceeded to join the rest of Mr. Hunter's party.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 181

Two or three families of government employes from the
saw-mill had found their way to our missionary company.
Thus constituted, we started for the old crossing of Hawk
River, some six or eight miles distant.

While we were still in sight of the river bluffs, we dis
covered a man coining after us. He was evidently a
white man, and hobbled along with difficulty, as though
lie were wounded. We stopped until he overtook us.
It proved to be a man by the name of Orr, whose com
rades had been killed up near the mouth of the Chip-
pewa, and he escaped in a crippled condition. Our
wagons were more than full, but we could make room
for a wounded white man. About this time a rain shower
came upon us, which was a Godsend in many ways, al
though it made camping that night rather unpleasant.

When night overtook us, we were across the stream, —
Hawk River, — and we lay down to rest and consider
what should be our course on the morrow. In the morn
ing, we had decided to cross the country, or endeavor to
do so, toward Hutchinson or Glencoe. But the country
was not familiar to us. We frequently found ourselves
stopped in our course by a slough which was not easy to
cross. Still, we kept on our way during Wednesday, and
in the afternoon there fell to us four men from Otherday's
party. These men all had guns which were not of much
account. They belonged at New Ulm, and did not want
to go to Hutchinson. But they continued with us that
day.

The evening came with a slow continued rain. The
first night we were out, the smaller children had cried
for home. The second night, some of the older children
would have cried if it had been of any use. We had no
shelter. The wagons were no protection against the con-

182 MARY AND I.

tin iied rain, but it was rather natural to crawl under
them. The drop, drop, DKOP, all night long from the
wagon-beds, on the women and children, who had not
more than half covering in that cold August rain, was
not promotive of cheerfulness. Mrs. Moore looked sad
and disheartened, and to my question as to how she did
she replied that one might as well die as live under such
circumstances.

Thursday morning found us cold and wet, and entirely
out of cooked food. Since the first night we had not
been where we could obtain wood. And then, and since,
we should have been afraid to kindle a fire, lest the smoke
should betray us. But now it was necessary that we
should find wood as soon as possible. And so our course
was taken toward a clump of trees which were in sight.
When we came into their neighborhood, about noon, we
found them entirely surrounded by water. But the men
waded in and brought wood enough for the purposes of
camping. There we spent the afternoon and night.
There we killed one of the cows. And there we baked
bread and roasted meat on the coals, having neither pot
nor kettle nor pan to do it in. And while we were
eating^ Mr. Ebell fixed up his apparatus and took a very
good stereoscopic picture of the party.

We had discovered from surveyor's stakes that we
were making slow progress, and so we decided, as we
started Friday morning, to abandon our plan of going to
Hutchinson, and turn down to the old Lac-qui-parle road,
which would lead us to Fort Ridgely. This road we
reached in time to take our noon rest at Birch Coolie,
nearly opposite the Lower Sioux Agency, where the mas
sacres had commenced. We were not much posted in
what had taken place there. Mr, Hunter rode over to

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 183

see his house, only a couple of miles distant. There he
met Tatemema (Round Wind), an old Indian whom he
knew, who told him to hurry on to the fort, as all the
white people had been killed or had fled. Just as we
were starting from this place, a team came in sight, which
proved to be Dr. and Mrs. Williamson and Aunt Jane
with an ox team. They had remained until Wednesday
morning, and thought to stay through the trouble, but
finally concluded it was best to leave and follow us. Our
company nowr numbered over forty, but it was a very
defenceless one.

We were sixteen miles from Fort Ridgely, and our
thought was to go in there under cover of the night.
The darkness came on us when we were still seven or
eight miles away ; and then in the gloaming there ap
peared on a little hill-top two Indians on horseback.
They might bring a war-party upon us. And so we put
ourselves in the best position for defence. Martha and
Anna had generally walked with the boys. Now they
piled on the wagons, and the men and boys, with such
weapons as we had, marched by their side. As the night
came on, we began to observe lights as of burning build
ings, and rockets thrown up fr^m the garrison. What
could the latter mean ? We afterward learned they were
signals of distress !

In our one-horse buggy, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter drove
ahead of the party, and he crawled into the garrison.
He found that the Indians had beleaguered them, had
set fire to all the out-buildings of the fort, appropriated
all their stock, had been fighting all day, and ha<5 retired
to the ravine as the night came on. The fort was al
ready crowded with women and children, and scantily
manned by soldiers. We could come in, they said, but

184 MARY AND I.

our teams would be taken by the Indians. They ex
pected the attack would be renewed the next day.

When Mr. Hunter returned, we stopped in the road
and held a hasty consultation, as we were in a good deal
of fear that we were even now followed. We had just
passed a house where the dogs alone remained to bark,
which they did furiously. And just then some of the
party, walking by the side of our wagons, stumbled over
the dead body of a man. There was no time to lose.
We decided not to go in, but to turn out and go around
the fort and its beleaguering forces, if possible. The
four men who had fallen to our company — three Ger
mans and an Irishman — dissented. But we told them
no one should leave us until we were past the danger.
And, to prevent any desertion in this our hour of trial,
Mr. Moore cocked his revolver and would shoot down
the man who attempted to leave.

It was ten o'clock, and the night was dark. We
turned square off the road, and went up northward to
seek an old ford over the little stream that runs down by
the fort. The Lord guided us to the right place, but
while we were hunting in the willows for the old unused
road, there was a cry heqyrd so much like a human cryjthat
we were all quite startled. We thought it was the signal
of an attack by the Indians. Probably it was only the
cry of a fox. Just then Dr. Williamson came to me and
said perhaps he had counselled wrongly, and that, if it
was thought best, he was quite willing to go back to the
fort. But I replied that we were now almost around it,
and it \fould be unwise to go back. And so we traveled
on over the ravine and up on the broad prairie beyond,
and received no harm. Our pulses began to beat less
furiously as we traveled on toward three o'clock in the

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 185

morning, and felt that we were out of sight and hearing
of the Sioux warriors. So we stopped to rest our weary
cattle. Some slept for an hour, but the greater part kept
watch.

As we were around the fort, and around the danger
so far as we knew, it was understood that the four men
who wanted to leave in the night, might leave us in the
morning. And as it was possible they might have an op
portunity to send a letter to Governor Ramsay before we
should, Dr. Williamson and I attempted to write some
thing by starlight. But nothing came of that letter.
When the light began to dawn in the east, our party
was aroused and moving forward. We had been guided
aright in the night travel, for here we were at the old
Lac-qui-parle crossing of Mud River. Here the four
men left us, and as the sun arose we saw the sheen of
their guns as they were entering a little wood two or
three miles away. And only a little while after that we
heard the report of guns; the poor fellows had fallen in
with the Sioux army, which in that early morning were
on their march to attack New Ulm. We did not know
their fate until afterward.

Our party now fell into the road that leads to Hender
son, and traveled all that Saturday in safety. But on
the St. Peter road, five or six miles to our right, we
saw the burning stacks and houses, and afterward knew
that the Sioux were on that road killing white people all
that day. It was the middle of the afternoon when we
came to a deserted house. The dishes were on the table.
We found cream and butter in the cellar and potatoes
and corn in the garden. We stopped and cooked and
ate a good square meal, of which we were greatly in
need. Then we pushed on and came to another house

186 MARY AND I.

some time after nightfall, which was deserted by the
humans, but the cattle were there. Here we spent the
night, and would have been glad to rest the Sabbath,
but as yet there was too much uncertainty. Three or
four hours' travel, however, brought us to a cross-roads,
where the whole settlement seemed to have gathered.
We there learned that a company of troops had passed
up, and had turned across to St. Peter. This seemed
to be a guarantee of safety, and so we rested the re
mainder of the day, gathering in the afternoon to wor
ship Him who had been and was our deliverer and
guide.

All the events of the week past appeared so strange.
We had hardly found any time to consider them. But
often the thought came to us, What will become of our
quarter-century's work among the Dakotas ? It seemed
to be lost. We could see no good way out of the diffi
culties. As we came into the settlements, we began to
learn something of the terribleness of the emeute, how
the Indians had spread terror and death all along the
frontier. And still their deadly work was going on. In
the dusk of the Sabbath evening we talked over mat
ters a little, as we planned to separate in the morning.
Some pecuniary adjustments were made, D. Wilson
Moore being the only one who had any money. But all
the party exchanged promises.

In the morning of Monday, Dr. Williamson and his
part of the company started across to St. Peter. There
remained only Mr. Moore and wife, and Adrian J. Ebel!
and my family, and we had the use of an ox team to
take us to Shakopee. It was twelve miles to Henderson.
When we came to the brow of the hill above the town,
we were met by several women who were strangers to us.

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 187

They rushed up and grasped our hands. I asked what
they knew of us. They said, "We have white hearts,
and we heard you were all killed." Our young folks had
worn out their shoes, and their feet also, by walking
through the sharp grass, and needed something to wear.
When these wants were attended to, and we all had par
taken of a good dinner at the hotel, we started on —
Mr. and Mrs. Moore taking the little steamboat to St.
Paul. When they arrived there, Mr. Shaw, of the
Merchant's Hotel telegraphed back to Mr. John Moore
of Philadelphia of their arrival. He had just before
received an urgent telegram, "Get the bodies at any
cost."

On our way to Shakopee we were met by our old
friend S. W. Pond, who had been trying for days to
ascertain whether the report of our being killed was true
or not. He gave Mary and the children a cordial wel
come to his home. They remained there a few days, and
then went on to G. H. Pond's, and from thence to St.
Anthony, where Mary found an old personal friend in
Mrs. McKee, the wife of the pastor of *the Presbyterian
church. They also found friends in all the good families,
and soon rented a house and commenced living by them
selves, the neighbors helping them to many articles which
they needed.

On hearing of the outbreak, Alfred, who had been
preaching a few months at Lockport, 111., furnished him
self with a revolver, and hastened up to see what could
be done. But, meeting the family at Shakopee, he re
turned to Illinois without making any demonstration of
prowess, taking with him Anna, and, after she was some
what recruited, sending her to Kockford Female Semi
nary.

CHAPTER XII.

1862. — General Sibley's Expedition. — I Go as Chaplain. —At
Fort Bidgely. — The Burial Party. — Birch Coolie Defeat. —
Simon and Lorenzo Bring in Captives. — March to Yellow
Medicine. — Battle of Wood Lake. — Indians Flee. — Camp
Release. — A Hundred Captives Rescued. — Amos W. Huggins
Killed.— We Send for His Wife and Children. — Spirit Walker
Has Protected Them. — Martha's Letter.

WHEN Mary and the children had safely reached
friends and civilization at Mr. Pond's, I was pressed in
spirit with the thought that I might have some duty to
perform in the Indian country. At Lac-qui-parle, twenty-
five miles beyond our station at Hazelwood, were Amos
W. Huggins, with wife and children, and Miss Julia La
Framboise. They had been in the employ of the gov
ernment as teachers at Wakanmane's village. What had
befallen them, we knew not; but we knew that white men
had been killed between our place and Lac-qui-parle.
Then, our native church members — they might need
help. And so I took a boat at Shakopee, and went down
to St. Paul, and offered my services to Governor Ram
say, in whatever capacity he chose to put me. He
immediately commissioned me as chaplain to General
Sibley's expedition. The last day of August I was at
St. Peter, where I learned from Mr. Huggins' friends
the story that he had been killed, and that his wife and
children were captives. In regard to them I received a
special charge from Mrs. Holtsclaw, and I conceived a
plan of immediately sending for Mrs. Huggins. But cir-

188

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 189

cumstances made it impossible to carry out that plan for
several weeks.

The next day, Sabbath though it was, I rode up with
Colonel Marshall and others to Fort Ridgely, where Gen
eral Sibley's command was encamped. He was waiting
for reinforcements and ammunition supplies. At the first
news of the massacres, a large number of citizens had
impressed their neighbors' horses, and had started for the
Indian country. Many of them were poor riders, and
they were all poorly armed. They were without military
organization and drill, and were felt to be an element of
weakness rather than strength. A night or two before I
reached the camp, a couple of shots had been fired, sup
posed to have been by Indians. The drum beat the
" long roll," and the men that formed this " string-bean
cavalry," as they were called, crawled under the wagons.
The next morning many of them had had a clairvoyant
communication with their families at home, and learned
that their wives were sick. They were permitted to
depart.

Three days before, a detachment of cavalry and infan
try had been sent up as far as the Lower Sioux Agency,
to find and bury the dead. They had done their work,
as they supposed, and crossed back to the north side of
the Minnesota, without seeing any Indians. As the sun
was setting on that Sabbath evening, they ascended the
hill and made their camp on the top of the Birch Coolie
bluff. But the Sioux had discovered them, and that
night they were surrounded by twice their own number
of the enemy. In the early morning the attack was made
and kept up all day. The report of the musketry was
heard at General Sibley's camp, eighteen miles away, but
the reverberation made by the Minnesota hills placed the

190 MARY AND I.

conflict apparently within six or eight miles. A detach
ment sent to their relief soon returned, because, after
they had gone a short distance, they could hear nothing.
But the firing still continued, and another detachment,
with a howitzer, was sent, with orders to go on until the
absent ones were found.

The sun was low when a messenger came from the
troops last sent. The Indians were in such large force
that they did not dare risk a conflict, and so had retired
to the prairie. General Sibley's whole force was then
put in readiness, and we had a night inarch up to Birch
Coolie. The relief detachment was reached, and an hour
or two of rest obtained before the morning light.

When our camp was in motion, the Indians came
against us and surrounded us ; but, soon perceiving that
the force was not what they had seen the night before,
they commenced making their escape, and we marched
on to the original camp. It was a sad sight — dead
men and dead horses lying in the hastily dug breastworks.
Twelve men were found dead, whom we buried in one
grave. Thirty or forty were wounded, and nearly the
whole of the ninety horses were lying dead. The camp
had suffered greatly for want of water, as the Indians had
cut them off entirely from the stream.

This defeat showed more clearly than before the neces
sity of being well prepared before an advance was made
upon the hostile Sioux. It also served to rouse Minne
sota thoroughly — a number of the killed and wounded
in this battle were St. Paul men. But the middle of
September had come and gone before General Sibley felt
ready to move up the river. In the meantime, while we
were still at Ridgely, Simon Anawangmane came down
by land, and brought Mrs. Newman and her children to

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 191

our camp. And Lorenzo Lawrence brought in canoes
Mrs. De Camp and children and others.

Mrs. Newman had been taken captive by the Lower
Sioux, and when they reached the Yellow Medicine, she
was apparently allowed by those who had her to go where
she pleased. One day she came to Simon's tent, and,
hearing them sing and pray, she felt like trusting herself
and children rather to Simon than to the others. When
the camp started to go farther north, Simon stayed
behind, and then, placing Mrs, N. and her children in his
one-horse wagon, and hitching to his horse, he and his
son brought them down. Mrs. De Camp's husband had
been severely wounded in the battle of Birch Coolie, and
had died only a couple of days before she and the chil
dren were brought in. Lorenzo also brought with him a
large English church Bible, and my own personal copy
of Dakota grammar and dictionary, which I prized very
highly.

The 21st of September, or five weeks after the outbreak
commenced, we were marching by the Lower Sioux
Agency and Red Wood, and getting an impression of
what the emeute had been, in occasionally finding a dead
body, and seeing the ruins of the buildings. The Sioux
were now watching our movements closely. Indeed,
they had kept themselves informed of our motions all
along. It was this day, at the Red Wood, John Otherday
went into a plum-orchard and left his horse a little way
out. One of the hostiles who had been hidden there jumped
on it and rode off. This made Otherday greatly ashamed.
The night of the 22d we camped on the margin of Wood
Lake, within three miles of the Yellow Medicine. Here
we were to rest the next day and wait for a train that
was behind.

192 MARY AND I.

At the Yellow Medicine were fields of corn and pota
toes, and some of our men mere anxious to add to their
store of provisions. Accordingly, before our breakfast
was over at General Sibley's tent, some soldiers in a wagon
were fired upon and two of them killed by Sioux con
cealed in a little ravine about a half a mile from our camp.
This brought on the battle. Almost immediately the
hills around were seen to be covered with Indians on foot
and on horseback. The battle lasted for two or three
hours. The Sioux had compelled every man in their camp,
which was twenty miles above, to come down, except
John B. Renville. They were playing their last card,
and they lost. When it was over, we gathered up and
buried sixteen dead and scalped Indians, and four of our
own men. Besides, we had a large number of wounded
soldiers. This battle made H. H. Sibley a brigadier-gen
eral.

Thus the Indians were beaten and retired. During
the fight John Otherday captured a Dakota pony, and so
made good the loss of his stolen horse. Simon Anawang-
mane was wounded in the foot in passing out to the hos
tile Sioux and back to our camp ; and the younger Simon
was brought in wounded, and died some days afterward.
The day following this battle, our camp was removed to a
point beyond the mission station at Hazelwood. As I
rode down to see the ruins of our buildings, some of our
soldiers were emptying a cache near where our house had
stood. The books they threw out I found were from my
own library. A part of these and some other things
which were in good condition I secured. They had been
buried by our friends.

The next day was the 26th of September, when we
pushed on to Camp Release, where the friendly Dakotas

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 193

were encamped. The hostiles and such as feared to
remain had fled to the British Possessions. The friendly
Indians had by some means come into the possession of
almost all the captive white women and children. One
of our chief objects in pursuing the campaign had been
to prevent the killing of these captives. Little Crow
had written to General Sibley that he had many cap
tives ; and General Sibley had replied, " I want the cap
tives."

Now they came into our hands, nearly a hundred, be
sides half-breeds, many of whom had been in a kind of
captivity. The white women had dressed up as well as
they could for the occasion, but many of them only
showed their white relationship by the face and hands
and hair — they were dressed like Indians. It was a time
of gladness for us. White men stood and cried for joy.
We took them all to our camp, and wrapped them up as
well as we could. Some of the women complained be
cause we did not furnish women's clothing ; but that was
unreasonable. This was Camp Release.

Mr. Amos W. Huggins was the eldest child of Alox-
ander G. Huggins, who had accompanied Dr. Williamson
to the Sioux country in 1835. Amos was born in Ohio,
and was at this time over thirty years old. He was mar
ried, and two children blessed their home, which, for some
time before the outbreak, had been at Lac-qui-parlo, near
where the town of that name now stands. It was then an
Indian village and planting place, the principal man being
Wakanmane, — Spirit Walker, or Walking Spirit. If the
people of the village had been at home, Mr. Huggins and
his family, which included Miss Julia La Framboise, who
was also a teacher in the employ of the government,
would have been safe. But in the absence of Spirit

194 MAEY AND I.

"Walker's people three Indian men came — two of them
from the Lower Sioux Agency — and killed Mr. Hug-
gins, and took from the house such things as they
wanted.

The women and children were left uninjured. But
after they had, in a hasty manner, buried the father and
husband, whither should they go for protection? At
first they thought to find safety with a French and half-
breed family, living across the Minnesota, where our old
mission-house had been. But there, for some reason, they
were coldly received. Soon the brother of Julia La
Framboise came up from Little Crow's camp and took her
down. Spirit Walker had now returned, and Mrs. Hug-
gins took refuge in his friendly teepee, where she found a
welcome, and as good a home as they could make for her
and her fatherless children.

Spirit Walker would probably have attempted to take
them to the white soldiers' camp if she had been decided
that that was the wisest course. But Mrs. Huggins was
timid, and preferred rather that her Dakota protector
should decide which was the best way. And so it hap
pened that when the flight took place, Spirit Walker's
folks generally were drawn into the swirl, and Mrs. H.
found herself on the journey to Manitoba.

Immediately after we had reached Camp Release, and
had learned the state of things, I presented the matter to
General Sibley, whereupon, the same night, he authorized
the selection of four Dakota young men to be sent after
Mrs. Huggins. Robert Hopkins, Daniel Renville, Enos
Good Hail, and Makes Himself Red were sent on this
mission, which they fulfilled as expeditiously as possible.
In a few days we were gladdened by the sight of Mrs.
Huggins and her two children, and a child of a German

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 195

woman, which they also brought in. The mother was
with us, and was overjoyed to find her little girl.

While these things were taking place on the Upper
Minnesota, Martha, now Mrs. Morris, still under the inspi
ration of the events, was in St. Anthony, writing the fol
lowing letter to the Cincinnati Christian Herald: —

"In fancied security we had dwelt under our own vine
and fig-tree, knowing naught of the evil which was to
come upon us, until the very night of the 18th of August,
1862. Friendly Indians, who knew something of the evil
intent of chiefs and braves, had given Miss Jane Will
iamson hints concerning it during that day. More than
that they dared not tell. But few of our own Indians
had known much more respecting the coming storm than
ourselves. When intelligence came of the bloody work
which that morning's sun had looked upon, at the Lower
Sioux Agency, thirty-five miles below, our good friends
came to us, and, in an agony of fear for our lives and for
theirs, besought us to flee. We would certainly be killed,
and they would be in danger on account of our presence.
Some believed, but more doubted. We had heard Indian
stories before ; by morning light we were confident this
too would prove nothing but a drunken frolic, and we
would only lose our worldly possessions if we should de
part. The believing ones made ready a little clothing and
provision, in case of need. The principal men gathered
in council. Could they protect us? They would try, at
least until the morning. We sang ' God is the Refuge of
his Saints,' commended ourselves to our Father's, safe
keeping, and most of us retired to rest. An hour or two
passed in peaceful slumber by some — in nervous anxiety
by others.

196 MARY AND I.

"One o'clock had passed : a heavy knock at the door.
Our friends had learned more of the extent of the out
break, and felt that their protection would be worse tlir.n
useless. 'If you regard your own lives or ours, you must
go.' To their entreaties we yielded, and made hasty
preparations to depart. In a quarter of an hour we had
left our homes forever. Our company consisted of my
father's family, Mr. Cunningham's, and Mr. Pettijohn's,
and a Mr. and Mrs. Moore from New Jersey ; in all
twenty-one persons. Mr. Cunningham had charge of the
Hazelwood boarding-school, and Mr. Pettijohn, a former
missionary under the American Board, had been recently
a government teacher, twelve miles farther up the river.
He had been moving his family down that day, on their
way to St. Peter. As he drove my father's team along,
with the last of his goods, early in the evening, he was
met by two Indians, who took the horses from him, and
set him on an inveterately lazy horse belonging to another
Indian. Consequently our family had but a light buggy
and one horse left, which was to aid Mr. Cunningham's
two-horse team in carrying the all of the party. Room
was found in the conveyances for the smaller children
and all the women, except my sister Anna and myself.
We walked with the men and boys. Our Indian friends
guided us through the woods, the thick and tangled under
brush, the tall, rank grass drenched with dew, to the river
side, where we were quickly and carefully conveyed to a
wooded island, and then our guides left us. One of them,
Enos Good-\roice-Hail, was in the East some three or four
years since — a brave, handsome man, whose eye you
could not but trust. Our teams could not cross at that
place, so they were kept for us until the morning. All
the rest of that weary night we sat on the damp grass,

FOKTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 197

cold and dreary, wondering what the day-dawn would
bring. At length the morning came. My father and Mr.
Cunningham paddled across the river to learn the state
of affairs. We found we had neglected to bring the
most of the provisions prepared, and wondered what we
should do, even if permitted to go back home after a day
or so spent on that island. While still talking, a woman
hailed us from the opposite bank, who, as we found shortly,
had brought several loaves of bread and some meat on her
back, all the way from our houses. We received it as a
Godsend, and* soon after, my father, returning, brought
some more provision, which another friend had secured
for us. A longer, drearier day was never passed, — its
every hour seemed a day. The rain came down and
drenched us. My father went back and forth from the
island to a village where the friendly Indians were mostly
gathered, to find out what had been and what could be
done. We learned that Dr. Williamson had sent away
the most of his family, considering it his duty still to
remain ; that his wife and sister were with him ; but the
others, with a number of cattle for future need, were
secreted in the woods, a mile or two below us.

" By noon our houses had been rifled, and gradually
the idea fixed itself upon us that we must leave if possi
ble. We made arrangements to join Dr. Williamson's
family, and about three o'clock took up our line of march,
each carrying some bundles, having left on the island the
only trunk belonging to the party. For more than a
mile we walked along, with difficulty keeping our footing
on the side-hills, which we chose for safety. When fairly
out on the bluffs, we came up with one of the two teams,
in charge of Mr. Hunter, Dr. Williamson's son-in-law.
The baggage being transferred from our shoulders to the

198 MARY AND I.

wagon, the feebler ones were provided with seats, while
the stronger marched on. Soon we came up with the
remainder of the party, — Dr. Williamson's family, and
half a dozen persons from one of the government mills,
who had cast in their lot with them. We struck out on
the prairie to save ourselves if there was any chance.
Our march was shortly rendered unpleasant by a fiercely
driving rain-storm, from the soaking effects of which we
did not recover until the next day, though it had the good
effect of obliterating our path. Our company was in
creased by the arrival of a Mr. Orr, who had been engaged
in trading among the Indians, near the place Mr. Petti
John had resided, and who had been shot and stabbed
that morning. It seemed a marvel that he should ever
have been able to walk that far, and room was imme
diately made for him in a wagon, though it curtailed that
of others. Toward night we were overtaken by Mr. Cun
ningham, bringing one of his horses and our buggy, which
he had succeeded in getting hold of, and which was the
only vehicle belonging to twenty-one out of the thirty-
eight. Night came on, and we lay down on the hard
earth, with bed and covering both scant and wet, to rest.
In the morning dawn, after our usual remembrance of Him
who ruleth earth and sea, we went on our way, having
had but little food, as cooked provisions were scarce, and
we dared not kindle a fire, for fear of attracting at
tention.

" Our day's march was slow but steady — only stopping
when necessary to rest the teams ; and although we con
sidered ourselves in danger, we found it quite enjoyable,
more particularly after we and the grass got dry, so that
we could walk with ease. We had counted on having a
fine night's rest in spite of our scant bed-clothing, as we

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 199

were all dry, but we were disappointed. A slow, steady
rain fall through all the long night, completely saturating
almost every article of bed-clothing, and every person in
the company. In that comfortless rain we drank some
milk, ate a crust or tavo, and traveled on through the
long, wet swamp grass, and the swamps themselves, in
wading which two or three of us became quite accom
plished. By noon of that day, which was Thursday, we
came to a wood, fifteen or sixteen miles east from a settle
ment on the river, which was about twenty miles from
home.

" Our progress had been very slow — without any road,
the grass so wet and the teams so heavily loaded. Still
we could not but feel that the God who had led us during
these long days, would neither suffer us to perish in this
prairie wilderness nor be taken by savages. At this
place we stopped for the remaining half day, killed a
beef, and luxuriated on meat roasted on sticks held over
the fire. We also baked bread in quite a primitive style.
The dough being first mixed in a bag — flour, water, and
salt the only ingredients — and moulded on a box, it
was made into thin cakes about the size of a hand-
breadth, placed on forked sticks over the fire, to bake if
possible, and to be smoked most certainly.

" Here our party was immortalized by a young artist
— a Mr. Ebell — who had gone up into our region of
country a few days previous to our flight, for the purpose
of taking stereoscopic views. The next day we struck
for the river, coming in not far from a settlement called
Beaver, about six miles from the Lower Agency. Mr.
Hunter had formerly resided at the place, and as we had
not at the time the remotest idea of the extent of the
massacres, he drove in to ascertain the whereabouts of

200 MARY AND I.

the settlers. He saw no signs of any dead bodies, but
two or three Indians employed in pillaging, informed
him that all the people had gone to Fort Ridgely, and
advised him to hasten there, or some other Indians would
kill him. When just starting on after our noon rest,
some one spied a team in the distance, which soon proved
to be Dr. Williamson's, containing himself, wife, and
sister. Previously, some of us fancied that we might
have been unwise in fleeing, but when we saw them, we
knew we had not started too soon. They left on Tues
day evening, being assisted to depart by two of the Chris
tian Indians, Simon Anawangmane and Robert Chaske,
at the peril of their own lives. They said they would
gladly protect them longer, but it was impossible.

" After holding council, we pursued our journey with
the intention of reaching Fort Ridgely that night ; and
when within nine or ten miles, Mr. Hunter drove on to
ascertain how matters stood there. We felt ourselves in
danger, but thought if we were only inside the fort walls,
we would be safe. The men shouldered their arms, the
daylight faded, and we marched on. In the mysteriously
dim twilight, every taller clump of grass, every blacker
hillock, grew into a blood-thirsty Indian, just ready to
leap on his foe. All at once, on the brow of the hill,
appeared two horsemen gazing down upon us. Indians !
Every pulse stopped, and then throbbed on more fiercely.
Were those men, now galloping away, sent by a band of
\varriors to spy out the land, or had they seen us by acci
dent ? We could not tell. The twilight faded, and the
stars shone out brightly and lovingly. As we passed
along we came suddenly on a dead body, some days cold
and stiff. Death drew nearer, and as we marched on, we
looked up to the clear heavens beyond which God dwells,

FOETY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 201

and prayed him to keep us. When within a mile and a
half of the fort, we met Mr. Hunter returning, who re
ported as follows : He left the buggy in his wife's
charge, outside the barracks, and crawled in on his hands
and knees. Lieut. Sheehan, commander of the post, in
formed him they had been fighting hard for five days ;
that the Indians had withdrawn at seven that evening, it
being then between nine and ten, and that, if not rein
forced, they could hold oat but little longer. Some of the
buildings had been burnt; they had then five hundred
women and children inside, and if we could go on — go !
We went, striking away out on the prairie.

" Several of us girls had been mostly walking for
the ten miles back, but now, to give the least trouble,
we climbed on the wagons wherever we might find
room to hold on, and sat patiently with the rest. Ah !
if a night of fear and dread was ever spent, that was
one. Every voice was hushed except to give necessary
orders ; every eye swept the hills and valleys around ;
every ear was intensely strained for the faintest noise,
expecting momentarily to hear the unearthly war-whoop,
and see dusky forms with gleaming tomahawks uplifted.
How past actions came back as haunting ghosts ; how
one's hopes of life faded away, away, and the things of
earth seemed so little and mean compared to the glorious
heaven beyond ! And yet life was so sweet, so dear, and
though it be a glorious heaven, this was such a hard way
to go to it, by the tomahawk and scalping-knife ! Oh,
God ! our God ! must it be ? Then came sofnething of
resignation to death itself, but such a sore shrinking from
the dishonor which is worse than death; and we could
not but wonder whether it would be a greater sin
to take one's life than thus to suffer. So the night wore

202 MARY AND I.

on until two hours past midnight, when, compelled by
exhaustion, we stopped. Some slept heavily, forgetful
of the danger past and present, while others sat or stood,
inwardly fiercely nervous and excited, but outwardly
calm and still. Two hours passed ; the weary sleepers
were awakened by the weary watchers, and as quietly
as possible the march was renewed. It was kept up until
about nine in the day, when we struck the Fort Ilidgely
and Henderson road.

" Having traveled thus far without being pursued, we
felt ourselves comparatively safe. I am sure there was
not one who did not in heart join in the song and prayer
of thanksgiving which went up from that lone prairie
land, however much we may have forgotten or murmured
since. ' Jehovah hath triumphed ; his people are free,
are/ree,' seemed to ring through the air. As we pursued
our journey, we noticed dense columns of smoke spring
ing up along the river with about the same rapidity we
traveled, which we afterwards learned were grain-stacks
fired by Indians. We rested for the night near a house,
some fifteen miles from Henderson, from which the
people had fled. Here we felt safe ; but subsequently
learned that we were not more than five or six miles
from the Norwegian grove, where that same day a party
of warriors had done their bloody work. Surely, God led
us and watched over us.

" The next day being the Sabbath, we went on only as
far as we deemed necessary for perfect safety. Toward
evening my father held divine service, which was almost
the only outward reminder that it was the Lord's Day.
People coming and going — bustle here, there, and every
where — so different from our last quiet Sabbath at
home, the last time we and our dear Indians gathered

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 203

together around the table of our Lord, and perhaps the
last time we ever shall, until we meet in the kingdom.
The next morning our party separated, our family, with
Mr. and Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Williamson and second
daughter, and two or three others, continuing on the
Henderson road, and the rest striking across to St. Peter,
where Dr. Williamson has found abundant work in the
hospitals. Near there his family expect to remain during
the winter.

" We arrived that afternoon in Henderson, a town a
hundred miles from home, and we had been a week on
the way. * Why, I thought you were all killed ! ' was the
first greeting of every one. A shoe store was hunted up
before we proceeded to Shakopee, having first bidden a
Godspeed to our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Moore. By this
time some of us * young folks ' had acquired such a
liking for walking that we consider it superior to
any other mode of locomotion to this day; and if it
had not been that we were so ragged and dirty and
foot-sore, we should have preferred to continue our
journey. During that week our ideas of paradise grew
very limited, being comprised in having an abundance
of water, some clean clothes, plenty to eat, and a nice
bed to sleep in.

" Since our entering Shakopee, we have visited among
kind friends, until two weeks since, when we endeavored
to set up house-keeping in this town of St. Anthony.
Notwithstanding the kindness of friends and strangers,
we, in common with others, find it difficult to do some
thing with nothing, especially as my father is with the
expedition against the Indians. It cannot but be that
we should look back lovingly to the homes we have left,
which are all, even 'our holy and beautiful house,'

204 MAKY AND I.

wherein we have worshiped, destroyed by fire ; but I
trust that we all endeavor to ' take joyfully the spoiling of
our goods.' ' We must through much tribulation enter
into the kingdom of God.' Among our many causes for
thankfulness, one is suggested by the verse ' Pray ye
that your flight be not in the winter.' Another cause is
that there was so little loss of life among those connected
with the mission. We mourn for our dear friend, Mr.
Amos Huggins, son of a former missionary, and govern
ment teacher at Lac-qui-parle. His young wife and two
small children were, at last accounts, in the hands of the
Indians, as also Miss Julia La Framboise, an assistant
teacher who resided in their family. Because of the
influential relatives Miss La Framboise has among the
Dakotas, we hope for her, while for Mrs. Huggins we
can on\y pray.

" It was not my intention, when I began this article,
to enter at all into the causes of this outbreak ; but what
I have written will excite your indignation against all
Dakotas, and I cannot bear that it should be so. It must
be remembered that the church members, as a whole,
have had no hand in it. One, John Otherday, guided a
party of sixty-two across the prairies. Two others,
Lorenzo Lawrence and Simon Anawangmane, have
recently brought into Fort Ridgely three captive women
and eleven children ; and we doubt not that others will
also * let their light shine ' — at the peril of their lives,
remember.

" The Indians have not been without excuse for their
evil deeds. Our own people have given them intoxi
cating drinks, taught them to swear, violated the rights
of womanhood among them, robbed them of their dues,
and then insulted them ! What more would be neces-

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 205

sary to cause one nation to rise against another ? What
more? I ask. And yet there are many who curse this
people, and cry ' Exterminate the fiends.' Dare we, as
a nation, thus bring a curse upon ourselves and on future
generations ?

"MAKTHA T. RIGGS."

CHAPTER XIII.

1862-1863. — Military Commission. — Excited Community. — Da-
kotas Condemned.— Moving Camp. — The Campaign Closed. —
Findings Sent to the President. — Reaching My Home in St.
Anthony. — Distributing Alms on the Frontier. — Recalled to
Mankato. — The Executions. — Thirty-eight Hanged. — Difficulty
of Avoiding Mistakes. — Round Wind.— Confessions. — The
Next Sabbath's Service.— Dr. Williamson's Work.— Learning
to Read. — The Spiritual Awakening. — The Way It Came. —
Mr. Pond Invited Up. — Baptisms in the Prison. — The Lord's
Supper.— The Camp at Snelling.— A Like Work of Grace.—
John P. Williamson. — Scenes in the Garret. — One Hundred
Adults Baptized. — Marvelous in Our Eyes.

No sooner had the white captives been brought over
to our camp than, from various sources, we began to hear
of Indian men who had maltreated these white women,
or in some way had been engaged in the massacres of
the border. On the morrow, General Sibley requested
me to act as the medium of communication between
these women and himself, inviting them to make known
any acts of cruelty or wrong which they had suffered at
the hands of Dakota men during their captivity. The
result of this inquiry was the apprehension of several
men who were still in the Sioux camp, and the organi
zation of a military commission, composed of officers, to
try such cases. Naturally, we supposed that men who
knew themselves guilty would have fled to Manitoba with
Little Crow. The greater number of such men had un
doubtedly gone. But some were found remaining who

206

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 207

had participated in individual murders, some who had
abused white women, and more who had been mixed
up in the various raids made upon the white settle
ments.

When the wheels of this military commission were
once put in motion, they rolled on as the victims were
multiplied. Besides those who remained in the camp
when the flight took place, and supposed that clemency
would be meted out to them, several small parties of
Sioux who had fled were pursued by our troops and
" gobbled up," as the camp phrase was. In all such
cases the grown men were placed in confinement to await
the ordeal of a trial. The revelations of the white
women caused great indignation among our soldiers, to
which must be added the outside pressure coming to our
camp in letters from all parts of Minnesota, — a wail and
a howl, — in many cases demanding the execution of
every Indian coming into our hands. The result of these
combined influences was that in a few weeks, instead of
taking individuals for trial, against whom some specific
charge could be brought, the plan was adopted to subject
all the grown men, with a few exceptions, to an investi
gation of the commission, trusting that the innocent
could make their innocency appear. This was a thing
not possible in the case of the majority — especially as
conviction was based upon an admission of being present
at the battles of Fort Ridgely, New Ulm, Hutchinson,
and Birch Coolie. Almost all the Dakota men had been
at one or more of those places, and had carried their
guns and used them. So that, of nearly four hundred
cases which came before the commission, only about
fifty were cleared, twenty were sentenced to imprison
ment, and more than three hundred were condemned to

208 MARY AND I.

be hanged. The greater part of these were condemned on
general principles, without any specific charges proved,
such as under less exciting and excited conditions of
society would have been demanded. They were Sioux
Indians, and belonged to the bands that had engaged in
the rebellion. Among those who were condemned to be
hanged was a negro called Gusso. By the testimony of
Indians, through fear or a liking to the business, he had
rather signalized himself by the killing of white people.
But he talked French, and could give what appeared
to be accurate and reliable information in regard to a
great many of the Dakotas who were brought before the
commission. In consequence of this service, the com
mission recommended that his capital punishment be
changed to imprisonment.

More than a month passed before the court had fin
ished its work. In the meantime, we had changed our
camp to the Lower Sioux Agency. From this point the
women and children of the imprisoned men, together
with such men as had escaped suspicion, were sent down
under a military guard to Fort Snelling, where they,
being about fifteen hundred souls, were kept through
the winter.

At the close of their work, the military commission
turned over their findings and condemnations to General
Sibley for his approval. During the few days in which
these passed under review, the principles on which the
condemnations were based were often under discussion.
Many of them had no good foundation. And they were
only justified by the considerations that they would be
reviewed by a more disinterested authority, and that the
condemnations were demanded by the people of Min
nesota. General Sibley pardoned one man because he

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 209

was a near relative of John Otherday, who had done so
much for white people.

The campaign was now closed. The work of the
military commission was completed. It remained now
to go into winter-quarters, to guard the prisoners, and to
await such orders as should come from the President.
It was November when the camp was removed from the
Lower Sioux Agency to Mankato. On our way thither
we must needs pass by or through New Ulm. As we
approached that place, with 400 manacled Sioux, carried
in wagons, and guarded by lines of infantry and cavalry,
the people came out and made an insane attack upon the
prisoners. General Sibley thought it best to yield so far
to the wishes of the Germans as to pass outside of the
town.

On our reaching Mankato, I was released from further
^service in the camp, and sent down to carry the con
demnations to the military headquarters at St. Paul.
At midnight the stage reached Minneapolis. My own
family were across the river, living in a hired house in
St. Anthony. I had received very particular informa
tion as to how I should find the place, and went directly
there ; but, as no answer was made to my knocking, I
went back to the church to see if I could have made
a mistake. After trying in other directions, I aroused
Rev. Mr. Sercombe, who insisted on going with me to
tlie place where I had stood knocking.

Mary and the children were comfortably housed.
Mrs. Sophronia McKee, the wife of the Presbyterian
clergyman, had been a fellow-townswoman and special
friend of Mary in their younger years. This was a
guarantee of help in this time of need. They found
friends. Donations of little things to help them com-

210 / MARY AND I.

mence housekeeping came in from interested hearts.
Friends farther away sent boxes of clothing and in some
cases money ; so that after more than two months I
found them in comfortable circumstances.

All along the line of the frontier, where the Sioux
raids had been made, were many families who had
returned to desolated homes. Many persons all over the
country took a deep interest in this class of sufferers,
and money contributions were made for their relief.
The Friends in Indiana and elsewhere had placed their
contributions in the hands of Friend W. W. Wales of
St. Anthony. Here was a service in which I could
engage, and find relief from the strain of the campaign
and the condemnations. Accordingly, I undertook to
hunt up needy families in the neighborhood of Glencoe
and Hutchinson, and to dispense a few hundred dollars
of this benevolent fund. One day, as I was traveling in
my one-horse buggy over the snow between Glencoe and
Hutchinson, I was overtaken by a messenger from Gen
eral Sibley, asking me to report to Colonel Miller, who
was in command of the prison at Mankato, to be present
and give assistance at the time of the executions.

As a matter of duty, I obeyed. From my youth up, it
had been a determination of mine never to go to see a
fellow-being hanged. No curiosity could have taken me.
Rather would I have gone the other way. But, if I
could be of service to Indian or white man, in prevent
ing mistakes and furthering the ends of justice and
righteousness, my own feelings should be held in abey
ance and made to work in the line of duty.

On receiving the papers transmitted from the military
commission, President Lincoln had placed them in the
hands of impartial men, with instructions to report the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 211

cases which, according to the testimony, were convicted
of participation in individual murders or in violating
white women. Acting under these instructions, thirty-
nine cases were reported, and these were ordered by the
President to be executed. But among so many it was a
matter of much difficulty to identify all the cases.
Among the condemned there were several persons of
the same name — three or four Chaskays, two or three
Washechoons. In the findings of the commission they
were all numbered, and the order for the executions was
given in accordance with these numbers. But no one
could remember which number attached to which person.
The only certain way of avoiding mistakes was by
examining closely the individual charges. To Joseph
R. Brown, who better than any other man knew all
these condemned men, — and he did not recognize all
perfectly, — was mainly committed the work of selecting
those who were named to be executed. Extraordinary
care was meant to be used; but after it was all over,
when we came to compare their own stories and con
fessions, made a day or two before their death, with the
papers of condemnation, the conviction was forced upon
us that two mistakes had occurred.

The separation was effected on Monday morning, the
men to be executed being taken from the log jail, in
which all were confined, to an adjoining stone building,
where they were additionally secured by being chained
to the floor. Colonel Miller then informed them of the
order of the President that they should be hanged on the
Thursday following, and they were advised to prepare
themselves for that event. They were at liberty to select
such spiritual counsel as they desired. Dr. Williamson
was there as a Protestant minister, and Father Kavaux

212 MARY AND I.

of St. Paul as a Catholic priest. They were advised
not to select me, as I was acting interpreter for the
government. More than three-fourths of the whole
number selected Mr. Ravaux. This was accounted for
by the fact that one of the Campbells, a half-breed and
a Roman Catholic, was of the number. Some days
before this, Dr. Williamson had baptized Round Wind,
who was reprieved by an order from the President,
which came only a day or so before the executions,
reducing the number to thirty-eight.

Of this man Round Wind it is sufficient to say that
he was condemned on the testimony of a German boy,
who affirmed that he was the man who killed his mother.
But it was afterward shown, by abundance of testimony,
that Round Wind was not there.

As the time of their death approached, they manifested
a desire, each one, to say some things to their Dakota
friends, and also to the white people. I acceded to
their request, and spent a whole day with them, writing
down such tilings as they wished to say. Many of them,
the most of them, took occasion to affirm their innocence
of the charges laid against them of killing individuals.
But they admitted, and said of their own accord, that so
many white people had been killed by the Dakotas that
public and general justice required the death of some in
return. This admission was in the line of their educa
tion. Perhaps it is not too much to call it an instinct of
humanity.

The executions took place. Arrangements were made
by which thirty-eight Dakota men were suspended in
mid-air by the cutting of one rope. The other prisoners,
through crevices in the walls of their log prison-house, saw
them hanged. And they were deeply affected by it, albeit

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 213

they did not show their feelings as white men would have
done under like circumstances.

At the close of the week, Dr. Williamson, finding him
self quite worn out with abundant labors, returned to St.
Peter to rest in his family. The Sabbath morning came.
The night before, a fresh snow had fallen nearly a foot
deep. Colonel Miller thought it was only humane to let
the prisoners go out into the yard on that day, to breathe
the fresh air. And so it was we gathered in the middle
of that enclosure, and all that company of chained men
stood while we snug hymns and prayed and talked of
God's plan of saving men from death. To say that they
listened with attention and interest would not convey the
whole truth. Evidently, their fears were thoroughly
aroused, and they were eager to find out some way by
which the death they apprehended could be averted.
This was their attitude. It was a good time to talk to
them of sin — to tell them of their sins. It was a good
time to unfold to them God's plan of saving from sin —
to tell them God's own son, Jesus Christ our Lord, died
to save them from their sins, if they would only believe.
A marvelous work of grace was already commencing in
the prison.

The next day after the Sabbath I left Mankato, and
returned to my family in St. Anthony, where I spent
the remaining part of the winter, partly in preparing
school-books, for which there arose a sudden demand,
and all we had on hands were destroyed in the outbreak;
and partly in helping on the spiritual and educational
work in the camp at Fort Snelling. But Dr. William
son, living as he did in St. Peter, gave his time during
the winter to teaching and preaching to the men in the
prison. Immediately on their reaching Mankato, he and

214 MARY AND I.

liis sister came up to visit them, and were glad to find
them ready to listen.

The prisoners asked for books. Only two copies of the
New Testament and two or three copies of the Dakota
hymn-book were found in prison. Some of each were
obtained elsewhere, and afterward furnished them, but
not nearly as many as they needed. Some slates and
pencils and writing-paper were provided for them. And
still later in the winter some Dakota books were given
them. From this time on the prison became a school,
and continued to be such all through their imprisonment.
They were all exceedingly anxious to learn. And the
more their minds were turned toward God and his Word,
the more interested they became in learning to read and
write. In their minds, books and the religion we preached
went together.

Soon after this first visit of Dr. Williamson, they began
to sing and pray publicly, every morning and evening;
which they continued to do all the while they were in
prison. This they commenced of their own accord. At
first the prayers were made only by those who had been
church members, and who wrere accustomed to pray ; but
others soon came forward and did the same.

Before the executions, Robert Hopkins, who was, at
that time, the leader in all that pertained to worship,
handed to Dr. Williamson the names of thirty men who
had then led in public prayer. And not very long after,
sixty more names were added to the list of praying ones.
This was regarded by themselves very much in the light
of making a profession of religion.

In a few weeks a deep and abiding concern for them
selves was manifest. Here were hundreds of men who
had all their life refused to listen to the Gospel. They

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX.

now wanted to hear it. There was a like number of men
who had refused to learn to read. Now almost all were
eager to learn. And along with this wonderful awaken
ing on the subject of education sprang up the more
marvelous one of their seeking after God — some god.
Their own gods had failed them signally, as was manifest
by their present condition. Their conjurers, their medi
cine-men, their makers of wakan, were nonplussed. Even
the women taunted them by saying, " You boasted great
power as wakan men ; where is it now ? " These barriers,
which had been impregnable and impenetrable in the
past, were suddenly broken down. Their ancestral relig
ion had departed. They were unwilling now, in their
distresses, to be without God — without hope, without
faith in something or some one. Their hearts were ach
ing after some spiritual revelation.

Then, if human judgment resulted in what they had
seen and realized, what would be the results of God's
judgment ? If sin against white men brought such death,
what death might come to them by reason of sin, from
the Great Wakan ? There was such a thing as sin, and
there was such a person as Christ, God's Son, who is a
Saviour from sin. These impressions were made by the
preaching of the Word. These impressions became con
victions. The work of God's Spirit had now commenced
among them, and it was continued all winter, " deep and
powerful, but very quiet," as one wrote.

Some of these men, in their younger days, had heard
the Messrs. Pond talk of the white man's religion. They
were desirous now, in their trouble, to hear from their
old friends, whose counsel they had so long rejected.
To this request, Mr. G. H. Pond responded, and spent
some days in the prison, assisting Dr. Williamson. Rev.

216 MARY AND I.

Mr. Hicks, pastor of the Presbyterian church in Mankato,
was also taken into their counsels and gave them aid.
For several weeks previous, many men had been wishing
to be baptized, and thus recognized as believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This number increased from day to
day, until about three hundred — just how many could
not afterward be ascertained — stood up and were bap
tized into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. The circumstances were peculiar, the whole
movement was marvelous, it was like a " nation born in
a day." The brethren desired to be divinely guided ;
and, after many years of testing have elapsed, we all say
that was a genuine work of God's Holy Spirit.

Several weeks after the events above described, in the
month of March, I went up to Mankato and spent two
Sabbaths with the men in prison ; and while there la
bored to establish them in their new faith, and at the
close of rny visit, by the request of Dr. Williamson, I
administered to these new converts the Lord's Supper.
Robert Hopkins and Peter Big Fire had both been
prominent members and elders in Dr. Williamson's
church at Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-ze. Naturally they, with others
who were soon brought to the front, became the leaders
and exponents of Christian faith among the prisoners.

This first communion in the prison made a deep im
pression upon myself. It began to throw light upon the
perplexing questions that had started in my own mind,
as to the moral meaning of the outbreak. God's thought
of it was not my thought. As the heavens were higher
than the earth, so his thoughts were higher than mine. I
accepted the present interpretation of the events, and
thanked God and took courage. The Indians had not
meant it so. In their thought and determination, the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 217

outbreak was the culmination of their hatred of Chris
tianity. But God, who sits on the throne, had made it-
result in their submission to him. This was marvelous
in our eyes.

While these events were transpiring in the prison at
Mankato, a very similar work went on in the camp at
Fort Snelling. The conditions in both places were a
good deal alike. In the camp as well as in the prison
they were in trouble and perplexity. In their distresses
they were disposed to call upon the Lord. Many of our.
church members, both men and women, were in the
camp. There were Paul, and Simon, and Antoine Ren-
mile, the elders of the Hazelwood church, and Joseph
Napayshne of the Lower Sioux Agency. But the outlook
was as dark to them as it was to us. Mr. J. P. William
son thus describes the state of the camp in the closing
days of 1862:-

"The suspense was terrible. The ignorant women had
not seen much of the world, and didn't know anything
about law. They, however, knew that their husbands
and sons had been murdering the whites, and were now
in prison therefor, and they themselves dependent for life
on the mercy of the whites. The ever-present query was,
What will become of us, and especially of the men ?
With inquisitive eyes they were always watching the
soldiers and other whites who visited them, for an an
swer, but the curses and threats they received were little
understood, except that they meant no good. With
what imploring looks have we been besought to tell
them their fate. Strange reports were constantly being
whispered around the camp. Now, the men were all to
be executed, of whom the thirty-eight hanged at Mankato
was the first installment, and the women and children

218 MARY AND I.

scattered and made slaves; now, they were all to be
taken to a rocky barren island somewhere, and left with
nothing but fish for a support ; and, again, they were to
be taken away down South, where it was so hot they
would all die of fever and ague."

Rev. John P. Williamson, having been providentially
absent in Ohio at the time of the outbreak, returned to
accompany this camp of despised and hated Dakotas in
their journey from the Lower Sioux Agency to Fort
Snelling. But it did not immediately appear what he
could do for them. He and I were in much the same
condition, looking around for other work. He says of
himself that at this time he " made some effort to secure
a place as stated supply in the neighborhood of St. Paul
or Minneapolis, but was unsuccessful; and then he felt
such drawing toward the Indian carnp that he took the
nearest available quarters, and spent the winter minister
ing temporally and spiritually to this afflicted people."

When, in the spring following, they were taken down
the Mississippi and up the Missouri to Crow Creek, he
did not forsake them, but stayed by them in evil and in
good report, with the devotion of a lover. Everywhere,
and at all times his thoroughly honest, devoted, and un
selfish course commanded the respect and confidence of
white men in and out of the army. And his self-aban
donment to the temporal and spiritual good of the fami
lies of the men in prison begot in them such admiration
and confidence that scarcely a prayer was made by them,
in all those four years of their imprisonment, without the
petition that God would remember and bless "the one
who is called John."

The camp at Snelling was on the low ground near the
river, where the steamboats were accustomed to land.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX, 219

A high board fence was made around two or three acres
of ground, inside of which the Dakotas pitched their
cloth tents. In them they cooked and ate and slept, and
read the Bible and sang and prayed, and wrote letters to
their friends in prison.

By gradual steps, but with overwhelming power, came
the heavenly visitation. At first Mr. Williamson used to
meet the former members in one of their own teepees.
Presently there was an evident softening of hearts. Now
news came of the awakening among the prisoners at
Mankato. The teepee would not contain half the listen
ers, so for some time in the middle of winter the meet
ings were held in the campus, then in a great dark gar
ret over a warehouse, without other fire than spiritual.
In that low garret, when hundreds were crouched down
among the rafters, only the glistening eyes of some of
them visible in the dark, we remember how the silence
was sometimes such that the fall of a pin might be heard.
Many were convicted ; confessions and professions were
made; idels treasured for many generations with the
highest reverence were thrown away by the score.
They had faith no longer in their idols. They laid hold
on Christ as their only hope. On this ground they were
baptized, over a hundred adults, with their children.

It was my privilege to be present frequently, and to
see how the good hand of the Lord was upon them in
giving them spiritual blessings in their distresses. There
was ever a large and active sympathy between the camp
and the prison, and frequent letters passed between them.
When, at one time, I brought down several hundred let
ters from the prisoners, and told them of the wonderful
work there in progress, it produced a powerful effect.
In both camp and prison, both intellectually and spiritu
ally, it was a winter of great advancement.

CHAPTER XIV.

1863-1866. —The Dakota Prisoners Taken to Davenport. — Camp
McClellan. — Their Treatment. — Great Mortality. — Educa
tion in Prison. — Worship — Church Matters. — The Camp at
Snelling Removed to Crow Creek. — John P. Williamson's
Story. — Many Die. — Scouts' Camp. — Visits to Them. —
Family Threads. — Revising the New Testament. — Educa
ting Our Children. — Removal to Beloit. — Family Matters —
Little Six and Medicine Bottle. — With the Prisoners at Daven
port.

THE course of the Mississippi forming the eastern line
of the State of Iowa is from north to south ; but its trend,
as it passes the city of Davenport, is to the west ; so that
what is called "East Davenport" is a mile above the city.
At this point, in the beginning of the civil war, barracks
had been erected for the accommodation of the forming
Iowa regiments, to which was given the name of " Camp
McClellan."

Thither were transported the condemned Sioux who
had been kept at Mankato during the winter. On the
opening of navigation in the spring of 1863, a steamboat
ascended to Mankato, took on the prisoners, and, on
reaching Fort Snelling, put off about fifty men who had
not been condemned, to unite their fortunes with those
in the camp. The men under condemnation were
taken down to Davenport, where, at Camp McClellan,
they were guarded by soldiers for the next three
years.

220

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 221

After a little while, their irons were all taken off, and
they enjoyed comparative liberty, being often permitted
to go to the town to trade their bows and arrows and
other trinkets, and sometimes into the country around to
labor, without a guard. They never attempted to make
their escape, though at one time it was meditated by
some, but so strongly and wisely opposed by the more
considerate ones, that the plan was at once abandoned.
Generally the soldiers who guarded them treated them
kindly. It was remarked that a new company, whether
of the regular army or of volunteers, when assigned to
this duty, at the first treated the prisoners with a good
deal of severity and harshness. But a few weeks sufficed
to change their feelings, and they were led to pity, and
then to respect, those whom they had regarded as worse
than wild beasts.

The camp was not a pleasant place, except in summer.
The surroundings were rather beautiful. The oak groves
of the hill-side which bordered the river were attractive.
And the buildings occupied by the troops were comfort
able. But within the stockade, where the prisoners were
kept, the houses were of the most temporary kind,
through the innumerable crevices of which blew the
winter winds and storms. Only a limited amount of
wood was furnished them, which, in the cold windy
weather, was often consumed by noon. Then the
Indians were under the necessity of keeping warm,
if they could, in the straw and under their worn blank
ets.

In these circumstances, many would naturally fall sick
go into a decline, — pulmonary consumption, for which
their scrofulous bodies had a liking, — and die. The hos
pital was generally well filled with such cases. The

222 MARY AND I.

death-rate was very large — more than ten per cent,
each year, making about 120 deaths while they were
confined at that place, About one hundred men, women,
and children, who came afterward into the hands of
the military, were added to those who were first brought
down. These latter were uncondemned. As some,
women had been permitted to come with the prisoners
at the first, and now more were added, a good many
children were born there. And thus it came to pass
that all who were released and returned to their people
from this prison numbered only about two hundred and
fourscore.

For the first two years of their abode at Davenport,
Dr. Williamson had the chief care of the educational
and church work among them. During this time I
only visited them twice. Once, when a difficulty and
misunderstanding had arisen between Dr. Williamson
and a General Roberts, who at one time commanded
that department, the doctor was obliged to return to
his home in St. Peter. On learning the fact, I coun
selled with General Sibley, who gave me a letter to
General Roberts. Before I reached there, however,
Roberts had become ashamed of his conduct, as I
judged, and so I found it quite easy to restore ami
cable relations. No such difficulties occurred there
after.

For the prisoners these were educational years. They
were better supplied with books than they could be at
Mankato. A new edition of our Dakota hymn-book was
gotten out, and in 1885 an edition of the Dakota Bible
so far as translated, besides other books. The avails of
their work in mussel-shells and bows gave them the
means of purchasing paper and books.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 223

With only a few exceptions, all in the prison who
were adults professed to be Christians. A few had
been baptized by Rev. S. D. Hininan, of the Episcopal
church, who visited them once while at Davenport. But
while a number were recognized as members of that
church, they worshipped all together. Morning and
night they had their singing and praying; but espe
cially at night, when they were not likely to be dis
turbed by any order from the officer in command.

In church matters they naturally fell into classes ac
cording to their former clans or villages. In each of
these classes one — or more than one — Hoonkayape
was ordained. He was the elder and class-leader.
This arrangement was made by Dr. Williamson. It
was one step toward raising up for them pastors from
themselves. On our part it was a felt necessity, for
we could not properly watch over and care for these
people as they could watch over and care for each other.
So the work of education and establishment in the faith
of the Gospel was carried on.

Let us now return to follow for a little the fortunes
of those in the camp at Fort Snelling. The winter of
suspense had worn away, and in the month of April,
soon after the Mankato prisoners passed down into Iowa,
those at Snelling were placed on a steamboat, and floated
down to St. Louis and up the Missouri to Crow Creek,
where they were told to make homes. Mr. J. P. Will
iamson went with them, and remained with them, dur
ing those terrible years of suffering and death. Who can
tell the story better than he ?

" As they look on their native hills for the last time, a
dark cloud is crushing their hearts. Down they go to

224 MARY AND I.

St. Louis, thence up the Missouri to Crow Creek. But
this brings little relief, for what of the men ; and can
the women and children ever live in this parched
land, where neither rain nor dew was seen for many
weeks?

" The mortality was fearful. The shock, the anxiety,
the confinement, the pitiable diet, were naturally followed
by sickness. Many died at Fort Snelling. The steam
boat trip of over one month, under some circumstances,
might have been a benefit to their health, but when
1300 Indians were crowded like slaves on the boiler
and hurricane decks of a single boat, and fed on musty
hardtack and briny pork, which they had not half a
chance to cook, diseases were bred which made fearful
havoc during the hot months, and the 1300 souls that
were landed at Crow Creek June 1, 1863, decreased to
one thousand. For a time a teepee where no one was
sick could scarcely be found, and it was a rare day when
there was no funeral. So were the hills soon covered
with graves. The very memory of Crow Creek became
horrible to the Santees, who still hush their voices at the
mention of the name.

" Meetings, always an important means of grace, were
greatly multiplied. Daily meetings were commenced at
Fort Snelling; the steamboat was made a Bethel for daily
praise, and the Crow Creek daily prayer-meetings were
held each summer under boo'ths, which plan was contin
ued the first summer at Niobrara. Women's prayer-
meetings were commenced at Crow Creek, deaconesses
being appointed to have charge of them. The children
also had meetings, conducted by themselves. All these
means were blessed of the Holy Spirit to the breaking of
the Herculean chains of Paganism,"

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 225

Soon after reaching Crow Creek, Mr. Williamson called
to his assistance Mr. Edward R. Pond and his wife, Mrs.
Mary Frances Pond — born Hopkins — both children of
the old missionaries, who continued with these people
until the year 1870.

For the security of the Minnesota frontier, and to fur
ther chastise the Sioux, military expeditions were organ
ized in the spring and summer of 1863. The one that
went from Minnesota was in command of Gen. H. H.
Sibley. Attached to this expedition was a corps of
scouts, forty or fifty of them being Dakota men, who had
in some way, and to some extent, showed themselves to
be on the side of the white people, at the time of the
outbreak. In this expedition I had the position of inter
preter.

The families of these Sioux scouts were sent out to the
frontier, and maintained by the government, not only
during that summer, but for several years. This was
known as the " Scouts' Camp," and the church among
them was called by the same name, until 1869, when
several churches were formed out of this one, as they be
gan to scatter and settle down on the new Sisseton Res
ervation.

In the summer of 1864, I visited their camp at the
head of the Red Wood. The next summer I was with
them for a short time at the Yellow Medicine. At each
of these visits quite a number of additions was made to
the roll of church members — infants and grown persons
were baptized, marriages were solemnized, and ruling
elders were ordained. During these years we had licensed
and ordained as an evangelist John B. Renville, who ac
companied me on each of the visits mentioned.

226 MAEY AND I.

Let me now gather up, and weave in, some threads of
our home-life. For three years Mary and the children
made their home in St. Anthony, now East Minneapolis,
in a hired house. Our three boys, at the commencement
of this period, being fifteen and thirteen and seven respect
ively, were at a good age to be profited by the schools of
the town. Thomas and Henry soon commenced the rudi
ments of the Latin in Mr. Butterfield's school. While,
to add to the family finances, Isabella and Martha, in
turn, and sometimes both, engaged in teaching.

When a student in Chicago Theological Seminary, Al
fred formed the acquaintance of Mary Buel Hatch.
Her father had died in her childhood ; and her mother
had resided a while in Rockford, 111., educating her daugh
ters, but was now living in Chicago. The attachment
then formed resulted in marriage, after Alfred had been
located a year at Lockport, 111., where he was called, im
mediately on graduating, to be the religious teacher of
the Congregational church.

In the month of June, 1863, they took their wedding
journey, and visited the improvised home of the family
in St. Anthony, whence they returned and made their
own home at Lockport for four years. This first daugh
ter introduced into the family has charmed us all by her
active, sunshiny Christian life.

Returning from the military campaign in the fall of
1863, when there seemed to be no special call for my
services with the Indians, I addressed myself for the
next six months to a revision and completion of the New
Testament in the Dakota langunge. It was a winter of
very hard and confining work, and right glad was I when
the spring came, and I could find some recreation in the
garden.

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 227

The next autumn I went to New York and spent three
months in the Bible House, reading the proof of our new
Dakota Bible, and having some other printing done. To
the New Testament above mentioned, Dr. Williamson
had added a revised Genesis and Proverbs. It was at
this time the Bible Society commenced making electro
type plates of the Dakota Scriptures.

Mary's health, always tenacious but never vigorous,
had received a severe shock by the outbreak and what
followed. But she did not at once succumb. Her will
power was very strong, which often proved sufficient to
keep her up when some others would have placed them
selves in the hands of a physician. But the house she
lived in became more frail and worn in the summer and
autumn of 1864, and she was obliged to take some special
steps toward upbuilding. For some weeks at the close
of the year, when I was absent, she was prevailed upon
to try a residence at a water-cure, but without any per
manent benefit.

As yet, the Dakota work, while it had given each one
of us plenty to do, did not assume anything like a per
manent shape. Things were still in a chaotic state. What
would be the outcome, no one could tell in the year 1865.
There was a time when I seriously asked the question,
"What shall I do? Shall I seek some other work, or
still wait to see what the months will bring forth ? " I
had even made it a subject of correspondence witli
Secretary Treat, whether I might not turn my attention
partly to preaching to white people, and do a kind of
half-and-half work. That plan was at once discouraged
by Mr. Treat; and then Mr. G. H. Pond came to my
relief, giving it as his decided conviction that I should

228 MARY AND I.

hold on to the Dakota work. So that question was
settled.

But where this work would be located did not then ap
pear. There did not seem to be any great reason why
we should remain in St. Anthony. The immediate family
business was the education of our children. In the au
tumn previous, I had taken Thomas to Beloit, where,
ufter making up some studies, he had entered the fresh
man class. Could we not better accomplish this part of
our God-given trust by removing thither, and for a while
making that our home ? By so doing, I might be farther
away from any permanent place of work among the
Dakotas. On the other hand, I would be nearer the pris
oners at Davenport, and could relieve Dr. Williamson for
the winter, which was desired. In this state of doubt, it
often seemed that it would have been so comforting and
satisfying if we could have heard the Lord's voice say
ing, " This is the way, walk ye in it." But no such voice
came. However, as Mary recruited in the summer, and
it seemed quite probable she would be able to remove,
our judgment trended to Beloit, and I made arrangements
for a family home by the purchase of a small cottage and
garden, which have been a comfort to us in all these
years.

And so, in the month of September, we came to the
southern line of Wisconsin. Anna had just completed
the course at Rockford Female Seminary, and was ready
to do duty in our new home. Martha accepted a call to
teach at Mankato. Isabella accompanied us to Beloit,
having under consideration the question of going to China
with Rev. Mark W. Williams. This decision was not
fully reached until the meeting of the American Board in
Chicago, in the fall of 1865. One day she and I walked

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 229

down Washington street together, and talked over the
subject, and she gave in her answer.

In the early days of that year, two of the leaders in
the outbreak of 1862 were captured from beyond the
British line, and, after a trial by a military commission,
were condemned to be hanged. These men were com
monly known as Little Six and Medicine Bottle. While in
Chicago at the meeting of the Board, I received a note
from Colonel McLaren, commanding at Fort Snelling, ask
ing me to attend these men before their execution. The
invitation was sent at their request. I obeyed the
summons, and spent a couple of days with the condemned.
But while I was there a telegram came from Washington
giving them a reprieve. This relieved me from being
present when they were hanged, one month afterward.

The winter that followed, I gave to the prisoners at
Davenport. They had passed through the small-pox
with considerable loss of life ; and that winter only the
ordinary cases of sickness and the ordinary number of
deaths occurred. These were numerous enough. The
confinement of nearly four years, and the uncertainty
which had always rested upon them like a nightmare,
had all along produced many cases of decline. And even
when the time of their deliverance drew nigh, and hope
should have made them buoyant, they were too much
afraid to hope — the promise was too good to be
believed.

Before their release, I was called home to attend, on
the 21st of February, the marriage of Isabella and Mr.
Williams, and to bid them God-speed on their long
journey by sailing vessel to China.

CHAPTER XV.

1866-1869. — Prisoners Meet their Families at the Niobrara. —
Our Summer's Visitation. — At the Scouts' Camp. — Crossing
the Prairie. — Killing Buffalo. — At Niobrara. — Keligious
Meetings. — Licensing Natives. — Visiting the Omahas. —
Scripture Translating. — Sisseton Treaty at Washington. —
Second Visit to the Santees. — Artemas and Titus Ordained. —
Crossing to the Head of the Coteau. — Organizing Churches
and Licensing Dakotas. — Solomon, Robert, Louis, Daniel. —
On Horseback in 1868. — Visit to the Santees, Yanktons, and
Brules. — Gathering at Dry Wood. — Solomon Ordained. —
Writing "Takoo Wakan." — Mary's Sickness. — Grand
Hymns. — Going through the Valley of the Shadow. — Death !

THE spring of 1866 saw the prisoners at Davenport
released by order of the President ; and their families,
which had remained at Crow Creek for three dry and
parched years, were permitted to join their husbands and
brothers and fathers at Niobrara, in the north-east angle
of Nebraska. That was a glad and a sad meeting ; but
the gladness prevailed over the sadness. And now all
the Dakotas with whom we had been laboring were
again in a somewhat normal condition. All had passed
through strange trials and tribulations, and God had
brought them out into a large place. The prisoners had
prayed that their chains might be removed. God heard
them, and the chains were now a thing of the past. They
had prayed that they might again have a country, and
now they were in the way of receiving that at the hand
of the Lord.

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 231

And so, as Rev. John P. Williamson was with the
united church of camp and prison on the Missouri, Dr. T.
S. Williamson and I took with us John B. Renville and
started on a tour of summer visitation. After a week's
travel from St. Peter, in Minnesota, we reached the
Scouts' Camp, which, in the month of June, 186(5, we
found partly on the margin of Lake Traverse, and partly
at Buffalo Lake, in the country which was afterward set
apart for their especial use.

At both of these places we administered the Lord's
Supper, ordained Daniel Renville as a ruling elder, and
licensed Peter Big-Fire and Simon Anawangmane to
preach the Gospel. Neither of these men developed into
preachers, but they have been useful as exhorters from
that day to this. On the Fourth of July, we added Peter
to our little company, and started across from Fort
Wadsworth, which had only recently been established, to
Crow Creek on the Missouri. From that point we passed
down to the mouth of the Niobrara.

On this journey across the prairie we encountered many
herds of buffalo. Sometimes they were far to one side
of us, and we could pass by without molesting them.
Once, on the first day from Wadsworth, we came suddenly
upon a herd of a hundred or more, lying down. When
we discovered them, they were only about half a mile in
front of us. Peter said it was too good a chance not to
be improved ; he must shoot one. We gave him leave to
try, and he crawled around over some low ground and
killed a very fine cow. We could only take a little of the
meat, leaving the rest to be devoured by prairie wolves.
This episode in the day's travel frightened our horses,
delayed us somewhat, and made us late, getting into camp
at the "Buzzard's Nest." The result was that in the

232 MAKY AND I.

gloaming our horses all broke away, and gave us four
hours of hunting for them the next morning. Then we
had a long, hot ride, without water, over the burning
prairie, to James River.

As I have said, the prisoners released from Davenport
and their families from Crow Creek had met at Niobrara.
This point had been selected for a town site, and a com
pany had erected a large shell of a frame house intended
for a hotel. Their plans had failed, and now the thought
probably was to reimburse themselves out of the govern
ment.

We found the Indians living in tents, while the fam
ilies of Mr. Williamson and Mr. Pond and others were
accommodated with shelter in the big house. For their
religious mass-meetings, they had erected a large booth,
which served well in the dry weather of summer. Every
day, morning and evening, they gathered there for prayer
and praise, reading the Bible and telling what God had
done for them. They had come too late to plant, and
there was but little employment for them, and so the
weeks we spent there were weeks of worship, given to the
strengthening of the things that remain, and arranging
for future educational and Christian work. The churches
of the prison and the camp were consolidated, and we se
lected and licensed Artemas Ehnamane and Titus Icha-
dooze as probationers for the Gospel ministry. When we
had remained as long as seemed desirable, Dr. William
son and I left them, and came down to the Omaha Re
serve, where we visited the new agency among the Win-
nebagoes and the Presbyterian Boarding-School among
the Ornahas. The latter was flourishing, but, having
been conducted in English alone, its spiritual results were
very unsatisfactory.

FOKTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 233

The multiplication of Dakota readers during the past
few years gave a new impulse to our work of translating
the Scriptures, and made larger demands for other books.
This furnished a great amount of winter work for both
Dr. Williamson and myself. In five years we added the
Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song, and Isaiah, together with
the other four books of Moses, to what he had printed in
1865.

The Wahpatons and Sissetons, who constituted the
Scouts' Camp on the western border of Minnesota, and
who had done good service in protecting the white
settlements from the roving, horse-stealing Sioux in the
first months of 1867, sent a delegation to Washington
to make a treaty, and obtain the guarantee of a home
and government help. While that delegation was in
Washington, I took occasion to spend a month or more
in lobbying in the interests of Indian civilization. To
me this kind of work was always distasteful and un
satisfactory, and this time I came home to be taken
down with inflammatory rheumatism. I had planned
for an early summer campaign in the Dakota country,
but it was July before I could get courage enough to
start. And then it was with a great deal of pain that I
endured the stage ride between Omaha and Sioux City.
There I was met by Dr. Williamson, in his little wagon,
and together we proceeded up to the settlement in
Nebraska.

Since we had been there in the previous summer, these
people had drifted down on to Bazille Creek, where
Mr. Williamson and Mr. Pond had erected shacks — that
is, log houses with dirt roofs — and between the two had
made a room for assembly. The two men we had licensed
the summer previous were this season ordained and set

234 MARY AND I.

over the native church, Mr. Williamson still retaining
the oversight. At each visitation we endeavored to
work the native church members up to a feeling of
responsibility in the work of contributing to the sup
port of their pastors, but it has been no easy under
taking.

This summer, with Robert Hopkins and Adam Paze
for our companions in travel, the doctor and I crossed
over directly from Niobrara to the head of the Coteau.
Those Indians we now found considerably scattered on
their new reservation. Some general lines began to ap
pear in the settlement, and during this and our visit in
the year following several church organizations were
effected; and Solomon Toonkan-Shaecheya, Robert
Hopkins, Louis Mazawakinyanna, and Daniel Renville
were licensed to preach.

Louis was an elder in the prison and on the Niobrara,
and of his own motion had gone over to Fort Wads-
worth, and, finding a community of Sioux scouts con
nected with the garrison, commenced religious work
among them. In this he was supported and encouraged
by the chaplain, Rev. G. D. Crocker. This year our
camp-meeting was held on the border of the Coteau as it
looks down on Lake Traverse.

The opening of the season of 1868 found me starting
from Sioux City on a gray pony, which I rode across to
Minnesota. But first I spent some weeks with the San-
tees. They had partly removed from Bazille Creek down
to the bottom where the agency is now located. A long
log house had been prepared for a church and school-
house. The Episcopalians were building extensively
and expensively, while our folks contented themselves
with very humble abodes. The work of education had

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 235

progressed very finely, Mr. Williamson and Mr. Pond
giving much time to it, while Mrs. Pond and Mrs.
Williamson greatly helped the women in their religious
home-life.

This summer John P. Williamson and I took Artemas
Ehnamane, the senior native minister of the Pilgrim
Church, and crossed over to Fort Wads worth, where Dr.
Williamson and John B. Renville met us. On the way,
we made a short stop at the Yankton agency, which we
had visited two years before. Now it was opening up
as a field of promise to Mr. Williamson, and he pro
ceeded to occupy it soon afterward. We made another
stop, for preaching purposes, at Brule and Crow Creek,
where the pastor of Santee showed himself able to gain
the attention of the wild Sioux. Our ride across the
desert land was enlivened by conversation on Dakota
customs and Dakota songs. In both these departments
of literature, this former hunter and warrior from Red
Wing was an excellent teacher.

This annual gathering at the head of the Coteau was
held at Dry Wood Lake, where Peter Big-Fire had set
tled. It was the most remarkable of all those yearly
camp-meetings. On this occasion about sixty persons
were added to our church list. It was a sight to be
remembered, when, on the open prairie, they and their
children stood up to be baptized.

At the close of this meeting we held another at
Buffalo Lake, in one of their summer houses, which was
full of meaning. The recently organized church of
Long Hollow, which then extended to Buffalo Lake,
had selected Solomon to be their religious teacher.
And this after meeting was held to ordain and install
him as pastor of that church. He was a young man

MARY AND I.

of Christian experience and blameless life, and has since
proved himself to be a very reliable and useful native
pastor.

Since the marvels of grace wrought among the Dako-
tas in the prison and camp, we had received numerous
invitations to prepare some account thereof for the
Christian public. Several of these requests came from
members of the Dakota Presbytery, which then covered
the western part of Minnesota. Accordingly, I had
taken up the idea, and endeavored to work it out. Some
chapters had been submitted for examination to a com
mittee of the Presbytery, and commended by them for
publication. In the autumn and winter of 1868, the
manuscript began to assume a completed form. It was
submitted to Secretary S. B. Treat for examination, who
made valuable suggestions, and agreed to write an intro
duction to the book. This he did, in a manner highly
satisfactory.

The manuscript I first offered to the Presbyterian
Board of Publication. But the best that Dr. Dulles
could do was to offer me a hundred dollars for the copy
right. Friends in Boston thought I could do better
there. And so " Tahkoo Wakan," or " The Gospel Among
the Dakotas," was brought out by the Congregational
Publishing Society, in the summer of 1869. In the prep
aration of the book Mary had taken the deepest interest,
although not able to do much of the mental work. The
preface bears date less than three weeks before her
death.

Authors whose books do not sell very well, I suppose,
generally marvel at the result. This little volume was,
and is still, so intensely interesting to me that I wonder
why everybody does not buy and read it. But over

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 237

against this stands the fact that hitherto less than two
thousand copies have been disposed of. Pecuniarily, it
has not been a success. But neither has it been an entire
failure. And perhaps it has done some good in bringing
a class of Christian workers into more intelligent sympa
thy and co-operation in the work of Indian evangeliza
tion; and so the labor is not lost.

Since we left Minnesota, Mary had apparently been
slowly recovering from the invalidism of the past. She
enjoyed life. She could occasionally attend religious
meetings. The society of Beloit was very congenial.
Sometimes she was able to attend the ministers' meet
ings, and enjoyed the literary and religious discussions
and criticisms. The last winter — that of 1868-69 —
she became exceedingly interested in a book called " The
Seven Great Hymns of the Mediaeval Church." She
read and re-read the various translations of Dies Tree.
But she was attracted most to the Hora JVbvissima of
Bernard of Cluni. Such a stanza as the 26th : —

" Thou hast no shore, fair ocean!

Thou hast no time, bright day!
Dear fountain of refreshment
To pilgrims far away !

" Upon the Rock of Ages

They raise thy holy Tower;
Thine is the victor's laurel,
And thine the golden Dower."

And the 29th : —

" Jerusalem the golden,

With milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation,
Sink heart and voice oppressed.

238 MAKY AND I.

" I know not, oh, I know not,
What social joys are there;
What radiancy of glory,
What light beyond compare! "

But these and others were all eclipsed by the last,
which seemed afterward to have been a prophecy of what
was near at hand, and yet neither she nor we anticipated
it: —

" Exult, O dust and ashes!

The Lord shall be thy part;
His only, his forever,

Thou shalt be, and thou art! "

This was a fascination to her. We were blind at the
time, and did not see afar off. Now it is manifest that
even then she was preparing to go to " Jerusalem the
only." She was tenting in the Land of Jfeulah.

For years past Mary had almost ceased to write letters.
Neither her physical nor mental condition had permitted
it. But a letter is found written on the 2d of February,
1869, which must have been the very last she ever wrote.
Along with it she sent a copy of some of the stanzas
from Hora Nomssima, which at this time were such an
enjoyment to her. The letter is addressed to Isabella, in
China. She writes: "Your last letter, wrritten October
5, '68, was received January 5, 1869. All your letters
are very precious to us, but this is peculiarly so. Per
haps I have written this before; but if I have, I am glad
again to acknowledge the joy it gives me that our
Father gives you faith to look gratefully beyond the
passing shadows of this life into the abiding light of the
life to come.

" Was the 19th of First Chronicles the last chapter we

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 239

read in family worship before you left home? If so, the
13th verse must be the one you read : < Be of good cour
age, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people,
jind for the cities of our God : and let the Lord do that
which is good in his sight.' Even so let it be. May you
ever <be strong in the Lord.' "

We had passed the nones of March. It was on Tues
day, the 10th, as I well remember, the day of the minis
ters' meeting, which was held at the house of the Presby
terian minister Rev. Mr. Alexander. Mary had been
planning to attend in the evening. But the day was
chill and cold, as March days often are. She had been
out in the yard seeing to the washed clothes, and had
taken cold. In the evening she was not feeling so well,
and decided to stay at home. For several days she
thought — and we thought — it was only an ordinary
cold, that some simple medicines and care in diet would
remedy.

On Saturday, as she seemed to be growing no better,
but rather worse, I called in Dr. Taggart, who pro
nounced it a case of pneumonia. The attack, he said,
was a severe one, and her lungs were very seriously
affected. Her hold on life had been so feeble for several
years that we could not expect she would throw off dis
ease as easily as a person of more vigor. But at this
time her own impression was that she would recover.
And the doctor said he saw nothing to make him think
she would not.

But soon after the physician's first visit, the record is,
"She was occasionally flighty and under strange hallu
cinations, caused either by the disease or the medicines."
On the following Thursday, she evidently began to be
impressed with the thought that she possibly would not

240 MARY AND I.

get well. She said she felt more unconscious and stupid
than she had ever felt before in sickness. When, in
answer to her inquiry a& to what the doctor said of her
case, I told her he was very hopeful, she said, " He does
not know much more about it than we do." At one
time she remarked, " I feel very delicious, the taking
down of the tabernacle appears so beautiful " ; and she
desired me to get Bernard's Hymn, and read such pas
sages as " Jerusalem the Golden " and " Exult, O dust
and ashes."

"Friday, March 19, noon.

" I watched with your mother last night. Her strength
seems to keep up wonderfully well, but the disease has
quite affected her power of speech. When it came light,
I perceived a livid hue about her eyes, and became
alarmed. We sent for Dr. Taggart. The propriety of
continuing the whiskey prescriptions seemed quite
doubtful, especially as the mother was taking them
under a conscientious protest. When the doctor came,
he appeared to be alarmed also, and changed his treat
ment from Dover's powders to quinine, but wished the
whiskey continued.

" During the morning she spoke several times about
the probabilities of life. l God knows the best time,' she
said ; ' but, if I am to go now, I do not wish to linger
long.' She had been able, she said, to do but little for
years, and there was not much reason for her living —
but she would be glad to stay longer for the children's
sake. At one time she remarked, in substance: 'I have
tried all along to do right ; I don't know that I should
be able to do better if the life was to be lived over
again.' "

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 241

" Saturday noon, March 20.

" It is a privilege that I never knew before to watch
and wait in a sick chamber where one is in sympathy
and contact with the spirit that is mounting upward. It
does seem as if the pins of the tabernacle were indeed
being taken out one by one, and the taking of it down
is beautiful — how much more beautiful will be its
rebuilding !

" Anna and I watched the first part of last night — or,
rather, she watched, and I lay on the lounge and got up
to help her. In the latter part, Alfred took Anna's
place. So we watch and wait. Her mind-wandering
continues at intervals, and she complains of her dulness
— so stupid, she says. Christ, she says, has been near
to her all winter, and is now. A little while ago, she
remarked that she had been once, at St. Anthony, as
low as she is now, and God had restored her. So she
wanted us to pray that God would restore her yet again.
This forenoon she had a talk with Henry, Robbie, and
Cornelia separately. When Mr. Warner came in, she
asked to see him, and said she hoped to have seen him
under different circumstances than the present — and
then commended Anna to his gentle care."

" Saturday evening.

" One feels so powerless by the side of a sick loved
one ! How we would like to make well, if we could !
But the fever continues to burn, and we can only look
on. Then the mind wanders and fastens on all kinds of
impossible and imaginary things. We would set that
right, but we can not. Dr. Taggart has just been here,
and speaks encouragingly of your mother. He thinks
if we can keep her along until the fever runs its course,

242 MARY AND I.

then careful nursing will bring her up again. The neigh
bors are very kind in offering us help and sympathy."

" Sabbath morning.

" The mother is still here. But the hopes Dr. Taggart
encouraged are not likely to be realized. Alfred and I
watched with her until after midnight, and Mrs. Bushnell
and Anna the rest of the night. As the bourbon contin
ued to be so distasteful, the doctor substituted wine; but
that was no more desirable.

" When told it was the Sabbath morning, she looked
up brightly and said, ' I think He will come for me
to-day.' Over and over again, she said, l He strengthens
me.' Mrs. Carr and Mrs. Benson came in this morning
and were very helpful. The doctor has been up again,
and says he is still hopeful. So we hope and watch."

" Sabbath evening.

" The sick one continues much the same as earlier in
the day. Mrs. Blaisdell and Mrs. Merrill came to offer
their sympathy. Dr. Taggart came again and desired
that she might renew the whiskey. This she promised
to do. Mr. Bushnell has been in and expressed his con
fidence in the minne-wakan for those who are ready to
perish."

" Monday morn, 5:30 o'clock.

" The end seems to be coming on apace. Anna and
Alfred watched the first part of the night, and Mrs.
Wheeler and I have been watching since. The difficulty
of breathing has increased within the last few hours, and
added to it is a rattling in the throat. Your mother
called my attention to it about three o'clock. It seems

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 243

now as if we can't do much but smooth the way, which
we do tenderly — lovingly."

" Seven o'clock, A. M.

" The battle is fought, the conflict is ended, the victory
is won, and that sooner than we expected. Your mother's
life's drama is closed — the curtain is drawn.

" About one hour ago she called for some tea. Mrs.
Wheeler hasted and made some fresh. When she had
taken that,' we gave her also the medicine for the hour.
She then appeared to lie easily. I sat down to write a
note to Thomas, who was in the Freedman's work in
Mississippi. But I had written only a few lines when
Mrs. Wheeler called me. She had noticed a change
come on very suddenly. When I reached the bedside,
your mother could not speak, and did not recognize me
by any sign. She was passing through the deep waters,
and had even then reached the farther shore.

" Mrs. Wheeler called up the children, and sent Robbie
for Alfred. But, before he could come, the mother had
breathed her last breath. Quietly, peacefully, without a
struggle, only the gasping out of life, she passed beyond
our reach of vision.

" Yesterday she had said to me, * I have neglected the
flowers.' I asked, c What flowers?' She replied, ' The
immortelles.' Dear, good one, she has gone to the
flower-garden of God"

CHAPTER XVI.

1869-1870. — Home Desolate. — At the General Assembly. — Sum
mer Campaign. — A. L. Riggs. — His Story of Early Life. —
Inside View of Missions. — Why Missionaries' Children Be
come Missionaries. — No Constraint Laid on Them. — A. L.
Biggs Visits the Missouri Sioux. — Up the River. — The
Brules. — Cheyenne and Grand River. — Starting for Fort
Wadsworth. — Sun Eclipsed. — Sisseton Reserve. — Deciding
to Build There. — In the Autumn Assembly. — My Mother's
Home. — Winter Visit to Santee. — Julia La Framboise.

As Abraham, a stranger and sojourner in the land of
the children of Ileth, bought of them the cave of Mach-
pelah wherein to bury Sarah, so it seemed to me that I
had come to Bcloit to make a last resting-place for the
remains of Mary. The house seemed desolate. Sooner
or later, it involved the breaking-up of the family. In
deed it commenced very soon. Robert went up to
Minnesota to spend a year at Martha's. In the mean
time, Anna had become mistress of the home, and had
with her Mary Cooley, an invalid cousin.

That year of 1869 I was commissioner from the Da
kota Presbytery to the General Assembly, which met in
New York City. It was an assembly of more than ordi
nary interest, as at that meeting, and the one that fol
lowed in the autumn, the two branches of the Presbyte
rian Church North were again united. During this stay
in New York City I was the guest of Hon. Wm. E.
Dodge. That was quite a contrast to living among the

244

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 245

Dakotas. But at the close of the assembly I hastened
westward to join Dr. Williamson at St. Peter. He
had procured a small double wagon and a pony team,
with which we together should make our summer cam
paign. Having fitted ourselves out, as we always did,
with tent and camping materials, our first objective point
was Sioux City, where we had arranged to meet and take
in Alfred L. Riggs.

Since a little previous to the outbreak in 1862, he had
been preaching to white people; first at Lockport, 111.,
where he was ordained and continued with the church
five years, and then for a year at Centre, Wis., and now
at Woodstock, 111. But all this time he seemed to be
only waiting for the Dakota work to assume such a shape
as to invite his assistance. For some time he had been
especially acquainting himself with the most approved
methods of education, that he might fill a place which,
year by year, was becoming more manifestly important
to be filled.

As in the progress of modern missions a large and in
creasing share of the new recruits are the children of mis
sionaries, it will be interesting to know, from one of
themselves, how they grow up in and into the Mission
ary Kingdom.

" My first serious impression of life was that I was
living under a great weight of something; and as I
began to discern more clearly, I found this weight to be.
the all-surrounding, overwhelming presence of heathen
ism, and all the instincts of my birth and all the culture
of a Christian home set me at antagonism to it at every
point. The filthy savages, indecently clad, lazily loung
ing about the stove of our sitting-room, or flattening
their dirty noses on the window-pane, caused such a dis-

246 MARY AND I.

gust for everything Indian that it took the better thought
of many years to overcome the repugnance thus aroused.
Without doubt, our mothers felt it all as keenly as we,
their children, but they had a sustaining ambition for
souls, which we had not yet gained.

" This feeling of disgust was often accompanied with,
and heightened by, fear. The very air seemed to breathe
dangers. At times violence stalked abroad unchallenged,
and dark, lowering faces skulked around. Even in times
when we felt no personal danger, this incubus of savage
life all around weighed on our hearts. Thus it was, day
and night. Even those hours of twilight, which brood
with sweet influences over so many lives, bore to us on
the evening air only the weird cadences of the heathen
dance or the chill thrill of the war-whoop.

" Yet our childhood was not destitute of joy. Babes
prattle beside the dead. So, too, the children of the mis
sion had their plays like other children. But it was lone
some indeed when the missionary band was divided, to
occupy other stations, and the playmates were separated.
Once it was my privilege to go one hundred and twenty
miles — to the nearest station — to have a play-spell of a
week, and a happy week it was.

" Notwithstanding our play-spells, ours was a serious
life. The serious earnestness of our parents in the pur
suit of their work could not fail to fall in some degree
on the children. The main purpose of Christianizing
that people was felt in everything. It was like garrison
life in time of war. But this seriousness was not asceti-
cal or morose. Far from it. Those Christian missionary
homes were full of gladness. With all the disadvantages
of such a childhood was the rich privilege of understand
ing the meaning of cheerful earnestness in Christian life.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 247

Speaking of peculiar privileges, I must say that I do not
believe any other homes can be as precious as ours. It
is true every one thinks his is the best mother in the
world, and she is to him ; but I mean more than this ; I
mean that our missionary homes are in reality better
than others. And there is reason for it. By reason of
the surrounding heathenism, the light and power of
Christianity is more centred and confined in the home.
And then, again, its power is developed by its antagonism
to the darkness and wickedness around it. For either its
light must ever shine clearer, or grow more dim until it
expires.

" Next to our own home, we learned to love the home
land in ' the States,7 whence our parents came. A long
ing desire to visit it possessed us. We thought that
there we should find a heaven on earth. This may seem a
strange idea ; but as you think of us engulfed in heathen
ism and savage life, it will not seem so strange. It was
like living at the bottom of a well, with only one spot of
brightness overhead. Of course, it would be natural to
think that upper world all brightness and beauty. Thus
all our glimpses of another life than that of heathenism
came from 'the States.' There all our ideas of Chris
tianized society were located. The correspondence of
our parents with friends left behind, the pages of the
magazines and papers of the monthly mail, and the
yearly boxes of supplies, were the tangible tokens which
in our innocent minds awakened visions of the wonderful
world of civilization and culture in « the East.'

" These supplies were in reality*, perhaps, very small
affairs, but we thought them of fabulous value. Indeed
they were everything to us. With the opening of the
new year the list of purchases began to be arranged.

248 MARY AND I.

Each item was carefully considered, and the wants of
each of the family remembered. This was no small task
when you had to look a year and a half ahead. What
debates as to whether B could get on with one pair of
shoes, or must have two ; or whether C would need some
more gingham aprons, or could make the old ones last
through. And, then, it was so hard to remember mos
quito bars and straw hats in January ; but if they were
forgotten once, the next January found them first on the
list. It was fun to make up the lists, but not so exhila
rating when, on summing up the probable cost, it was
found to be too much, and then the cruel pen ran through
many of our new-born hopes. Then the letter went on
its way to Boston, or maybe to Cincinnati, and we
waited its substantial answer. Sometimes our boxes
went around by lazy sloops from Boston to New Or
leans ; thence the laboring steamboat bore them almost
the whole length of the Father of Waters; then the flat-
boatmen sweated and swore as they poled them up the
Minnesota to where our teams met them to carry them
for another week over the prairies. Now it was far on
into rosy June. After such waiting, no wonder that
everything seemed precious — the very hoops of the
boxes and the redolent pine that made them ; even the
wrappers and strings of the packages were carefully laid
away. And, thanks to the kind friends who have cared
for this work at our several purchasing depots, our wants
were generally capitally met; and yet sometimes the
packer would arrange it so that the linseed oil would
give a new taste to the dried apples, anything but appe
tizing, or turn the plain white of some long-desired book
into a highly ' tinted' edition.

" When the number of our years got well past the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 249

single figures, then we went to « the States,' to carry on
the education begun at home. Then came the saddest
disappointment of all our lives. We found we were yet
a good way from heaven. For me, the last remnant of
this dream was effectually dispelled when I came to teach
a Sabbath-school in a back country-neighborhood, where
the people were the drift-wood of Kentucky and Egyp
tian Illinois. Thenceforth the land of the Dakotas
seemed more the land of promise to me. From that
time the claims of the work in which my parents were
engaged grew upon my mind.

" Of late years the children of missionaries have every
where furnished a large portion of the new reinforce
ments. This is both natural and strange. It is natural
that they should desire to stay the hands of their par
ents, and go to reap what they have sown. On the other
hand, they go out in face of all the hardships of the work,
made vividly real to them by the experience of their
childhood. They are attracted by no romantic sentiment.
The romance is for them all worn off long ago. For in
stance, those of us on this field know the noble red man
of the poet to be a myth. We know the real savage,
and know him almost too well. Thus those who follow
in the work of their missionary fathers do not do it with
out a struggle — often fearful. On the one hand stands
the work, calling them to lonesome separation, and on
the other the pleasant companionship of civilized society.
But if the word of the Lord has come to them to go to
Nineveh, happy are they if they do not go thither by
way of Joppa.

"I have spoken of the drawbacks to entering the work,
but the inducements must also be remembered. They
are greater than the drawbacks. We know them also

250 MARY AND I.

better than strangers can. If we have known more of
the discouragements of the work, we also know more of
its hopefulness. We know the real savage, but we now
know and fully believe in his real humanity and salva-
bility by the power of the cross. Now, too, when the
work is entered, the very difficulties which barred the
way grow less or disappear. We find the dreaded isola
tion to be more in appearance than reality. We here
are in connection with the best thought and sympathy of
the civilized world, whether it be in scholarship, states
manship, or Christian society. And not unfrequently do
we have the visits of friends and the honored representa
tives of the churches. One may be much more alone in
Chicago or New York.

" The difficulties of the work in earlier years are also
changing. We have a different standing before the peo
ple among whom we labor. We also have matured and
tested our methods of operation, and can be generally
confident of success. We have also an ever increasing
force in the native agency which adds strength and hope
fulness to the campaign. The people we come to con
quer are themselves furnishing recruits for this war, so
that we, the sons of the mission, stand among them as
captains of the host, and our fathers are as generals."

With such a growing-up, it would seem that he was
attracted to the life-work of his father and mother. And
yet our children will all bear witness that no special
influence was ever used to draw them into the mission
ary work. Some ministers' sons, I understand, have
grown up under the burden of the thought that they
were expected to be ministers. It was certainly my en
deavor not to impose any such burden on my boys. But

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 251

we certainly did desire — and our desire was not con
cealed — that all our children should develop into the
most noble and useful lives, prepared to occupy any posi
tion to which they might be called. Accordingly, when
a boy, while pursuing his education, has shown a disposi
tion " to knock off," I have used what influence I had to
induce him to persevere. But, beyond this, it has been
my desire that each one should, under the divine guid
ance, choose, as is their right to do, what shall be their
line of work in life. At the same time, it is but just to
myself, as well as to them, to say that it gives me great
joy now, in my old age, to see so many of Mary's children
making the life-work of their father and mother their own.

This visit of Alfred to the Saritee and Yankton agen
cies was made for the purpose of looking over the field,
and forming an intelligent judgment as to whether the
way was open and the time had come to commence some
higher educational work among the Dakotas. The place
for such an effort was evidently the Santee agency. And
John P. Williamson, who had so long and so well carried
on the mission work among the Santees, had for several
years past been more and more attracted to the Yank-
tons, where there was an open door ; and to the Yankton
agency he had removed his family, in the early spring,
before our visit. So the hand of God had shaped the
work. It required only that we recognize his hand, and
put ourselves in accord with the manifestations of his
will. After a few weeks, Alfred returned to his people
in Woodstock, and made his arrangements to close his
labors there in the following winter, when he accepted
an appointment from the American Board to take charge
of its work at the Santee agency.

252 MAKY AND I.

Our summer campaign now commenced. The Will
iamsons, father and son, with Titus, one of the Santee
pastors, and myself, proceeded up the Missouri. We
made a little stop, as we had done in former years, with
the Sechangoos, or Brules, near Fort Thompson, preach
ing to them the Gospel of Christ. Some interest was ap
parent. At least, a superstitious reverence for the name
that is above every name was manifest. " What is the
name ? " one asked. " I have forgotten it." And we
again told them of Jesus.

Our next point was the Cheyenne agency, near Fort
Sully, a hundred miles above Fort Thompson, at Crow
Creek. There we spent a week, and met the Indians in
their council house. Our efforts were in the line of
sowing seed, much of which fell by the way-side or on
the stony places. And then we passed on another hun
dred miles, to the agency at the mouth of Grand River,
where were gathered a large number of Yanktonais, as
well as Teetons. This agency is now located farther up
the river, and is called Standing Rock. Among these
people we found some who desired instruction, but the
more part did not want to hear. Our attempt to gather
them to a Sabbath meeting seemed quite likely to fail.
But there had been a thunder storm in the early morning,
and out a few miles, on a hill-top, a prominent Dakota
man was struck down by the lightning. He was brought
into the agency, and before his burial, at the close of
the day, we had a large company of men and women to
listen to the divine words of Jesus, who is the Resur
rection and the Life. It was an impressive occasion,
and it was said by white men that many of those Indians
listened that day for the first time to Christian song
and Christian prayer. But that agency has since passed

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 253

into the hands of the Catholics, and David, one of our
native preachers, who visited there recently, was not
permitted to remain.

At this point — Grand River — our company separated.
John P. Williamson and Titus returned down the Mis
souri, and Dr. Williamson and I took a young man,
Blue Bird by name, and crossed over to Fort Wads-
worth. On Saturday we traveled up the Missouri about
thirty miles, where we spent the Sabbath, and where we
were joined by a Dakota man who was familiar with the
country across to the James River, and who could find
water for us in that "dry and thirsty land." As we
journeyed that Saturday afternoon, the day grew dark,
the sun ceased to shine, our horses wanted to stop in
the road. It was a weird, unnatural darkness — an
eclipse of the sun. We stopped and watched its prog
ress. For about five minutes the eclipse was annular —
only a little rim of light gleamed forth. The moon
seemed to have a cut in one side, appearing much like
a thick cheese from which a very thin slice had been cut
out. We all noted this singular appearance. The
Dakotas on the Missouri represent that year by the
symbol of a Hack sun with stars shining above it.

When we reached the Sisseton reservation, we held
our usual camp-meeting again at Dry Wood Lake, regu
lating and confirming the churches, and receiving quite
a number of additions, though not so many as in the
year previous. The place for the Sisseton agency had
been selected, some log buildings erected, and the agent,
Dr. Jared W. Daniels, with his family, was on the
ground. The time seemed to have come when, to secure
the fruits of the harvest, some more permanent occupa
tion should be made in the reservation. Mary was gone

254 MARY AND 1.

up higher. The boys, for whose sakes, mainly, we had
made a home in Beloit, were no longer in college.
Thomas had graduated, and spent a year in teaching
freedmen in Mississippi, and was now in the Chicago
Theological Seminary ; while Henry had commenced to
seek his fortune in other employment. Without appar
ent detriment, I could break up housekeeping in Beloit,
and build at Sisseton. The plan was formed during
this visit, and talked over with Dr. Williamson and
Agent Daniels. God willing, and the Prudential Com
mittee at Boston approving, it was to be carried into
effect the next spring.

And so I returned to my home in Beloit, and went on
to attend the meeting of the two General Assemblies at
Pittsburg, where their union became an accomplished
fact. At the close of this meeting, I spent a couple of
weeks in visiting friends in Fayette County, Pa., and the
old stone church of Dunlap's Creek, which had been
the church-home of my mother when as yet she was
unmarried.

For several winters preceding this I had been working
on translations of the Book of Psalms and Ecclesiastes
and Isaiah. They were printed in 1871. But this
winter of 1869-70 was mostly spent with the Santees.
Mr. Williamson had left that place and gone to the
Yankton agency, where he has since continued with
great prosperity in the missionary work. And so there
came to me a pressing invitation from Mrs. Mary Frances
Pond and Miss Julia La Framboise to come out and help
them that winter.

Julia La Framboise was the teacher of the mission-
school at Santee. She was born of a Dakota mother,

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 255

and her father always claimed that he had Indian blood
mixed with his French. Julia was a noble Christian
woman, who had been trained up in the mission families,
completing her education at Miss Sill's Seminary, in
Rockford, 111. I found them all actively engaged in
carrying forward mission work. But we conceived
more might be done to bring children into the school
and men and women to the church. Accordingly, I
called together the pastors and elders of the church, and
engaged them to enter upon a system of thorough church
visitation, which had the effect of greatly increasing the
numbers in attendance on both the school and the
church.

Even then, as it afterward appeared, Julia was enter
ing upon the incipient stages of pulmonary consumption.
She was not careful of herself. After teaching school
until one o'clock, she was ever ready to go with the
agent's daughters to interpret for them in the case of
some sick person, or to relieve the wants of the poor.
Before I left, in March, her cough had become alarming.
And so it increased. The second summer after this, she
was obliged to stop work, and simply wait for the coming
of the messenger that called her to the Father's house
above.

CHAPTER XVII.

1870-1871. — Beloit Home Broken Up. —Building on the Sisseton
Reserve. — Difficulties and Cost. — Correspondence with Wash
ington. — Order to Suspend Work. — Disregarding the Taboo.
— Anna Sick at Beloit. — Assurance. — Martha Goes in
Anna's Place. — The Dakota Churches. — Lac-qui-parle, As
cension. — John B. Renville. — Daniel Renville. — Houses of
Worship. — Eight Churches. —The "Word Carrier." —An
nual Meeting on the Big Sioux. — Homestead Colony. — How
it Came about. — Joseph Iron Old Man. — Perished in a Snow
Storm. — The Dakota Mission Divides. — Reasons Therefor.

THE spring of 1870 brought with it a breaking-up of
the Beloit home. Some months before Mary's death, she
had invited to our house an invalid niece, the daughter
of her older sister, Mrs. Lucretia Cooley. A dear, good
girl Mary Cooley was. She had during the war acted as
nurse, in the service of the Christian Commission. But
her health failed. It was hoped that a year in the West
might build her up. After her aunt had gone from us,
Mary Cooley remained with us. But the malady in
creased ; and this spring her brother Allan came and took
her back to Massachusetts. And now, only a little while
ago, we heard of her release in California, whither the
family had removed. The good Lord had compassion
upon her, and took her to a land where no one says, " I
am sick."

Then the house was rented. The household goods
and household gods were scattered, the major part being
taken up into the Indian country. Anna would spend

256

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 257

the summer with friends in Beloit, and Cornelia, the
youngest, I took up to Minnesota, and left with Martha
on the frontier.

My plan was to put up two buildings, a dwelling-house
and a school-house, for the erection of which the com
mittee at Boston had appropriated $2800. That may
seem quite an amount ; but the materials had to be trans
ported from Minneapolis and the Red River of the North.
What I purchased at Minneapolis was carried by rail and
steamboat one hundred and fifty miles. There remained
one hundred and thirty, over which the lumber was hauled
in wagons in the month of June, when the roads were
bad and the streams swimming. And so the cost was
very great, — dressed flooring coining up to $75 per 1000
feet, dressed siding $65, shingles about $15 per 1000, and
common lumber $60 a thousand feet.

When the materials were on the ground, but little
money was left for their erection. But, with one carpen
ter and two or three young men to assist, I pushed for
ward the work, and by the middle of September the
houses were up, and ready to be occupied, though in an
unfinished state.

During this time there were some things transpired
which deserve to be noticed.

Before commencing to build, I had received the written
approval of the agent. In regard to the locality we dif
fered. He wished me to build in the immediate vicinity
of the agency, while I, for very good reasons, selected a
place nearly two miles away. But that, I think, could
have made no difference in his feeling toward the enter
prise. However, soon after I commenced, I was visited
by Gabriel Renville, who was recognized as the head man
on the reservation. He did not forbid my proceeding,

258 MAEY AND I.

but wanted to know whether I had authority to do so. I
replied that I had the approval of Agent Daniels, which
I regarded as sufficient. When I reported this to Mr.
Daniels, he advised me to write to the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, and obtain a permit, which, he said, might
save me trouble.

Accordingly, I wrote immediately to the Department
of the Interior, stating the life-long connection we had
had with these Indians, and the work we had done among
them, and that now I was authorized by the A. B. C. F.
M. to erect mission buildings among them, and asking
that our plan be approved.

After three or four weeks, when I was in the very mid
dle of my work of building, there came an order from
Washington that I should suspend operations until they
would settle the question to what religious denomination
that part of the field should be assigned. That subject
was then under advisement, they said.

Should I obey ? If I did so, much additional expense
would be incurred, and my summer's work, as planned,
would be a failure. Really no question could be raised
about it. The American Board had been doing mission
ary work among those Indians for a third of a century,
and no other denomination or missionary board pretended
to have any claim on the field. It was unreasonable,
under the circumstances, that we should be asked to sus
pend, and thus suffer harm and loss. So I placed my
letter safely, away and went on with my work. No human
bein^ there knew that I had received such a command.

O

By the return mail I wrote to Secretary Treat, rehears
ing the whole case, and asking him, without delay, to
write to the authorities at Washington. I told him I had
concluded to disregard the taboo, and would not in con-

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 259

sequence thereof drive a nail the less. When the summer
months were passed, and my houses were both up, I
received a letter from the commissioner commending my
work, and telling me to go forward.

In the latter end of August there came to me a letter,
written in a strange hand, saying that Anna was lying
sick at Mr. Carr's, of typhoid fever. The intention of the
letter evidently was not to greatly alarm me, but it con
veyed the idea that she was very sick, and the result was
doubtful. Ten or twelve days had passed since it was
written. My affairs were not then in a condition to be
left without much damage, and so I determined to await
the coming of another mail. When I heard again, a
week later, there was no decided change for the better.
So the letter read. But in the meantime this word had
come to me — " This sickness is not unto death, but for
the glory of God." It came to me like a revelation. I
seemed to know it. It quieted my alarm. All anxiety
was not taken away, but my days passed in comparatively
quiet trust. About the middle of September I started
down with my own team, and, on reaching St. Peter and
Mankato, I received letters from Anna written with her
own hand. She had come up gradually, but a couple of
months passed before she was strong.

Before I commenced building at Good Will, which was
the name we gave to our new station, the understanding
was that Anna would be married in the coming autumn,
and she and her husband would take charge of the mis
sion work there. Anna seemed to have grown up into
the idea that her life-work was to be with the Dakotas.
But it was otherwise ordered. In the October following,
when we all again met in Beloit, she was married to H.
I£. Warner, who had lost an arm in the War of the

260 MARY AND I.

Rebellion, and they have since made their home in
Iowa.

Martha Taylor Riggs had been married to Wyllys K.
Morris, in December, 1866. For a time they made their
home in Mankato, Minn., and then removed to a farm
twenty miles from town. Life on the extreme frontier
they found filled with privations and hardships, and so
were quite willing to accept the new place ; and before
the winter set in they were removed to Good Will.
Robert, who had gone up after his mother's death, and
spent a year with Martha at Sterling, Minn., returned
to Beloit, and entered the preparatory department of the
college. Cornelia went with us to Good Will, and re
mained two years.

The home was again in Dakota land. We at once
opened a school, which has since been taught almost en
tirely by W. K. Morris.* The native churches needed a
good deal of attention. At Lac-qui-parle a number of
families had stopped and taken claims. There a church
was organized of about forty members, which for two or
three years was in the charge of Rev. John B. Renville.
But about this time Mr. Renville removed to the reser
vation, and from that time the Dakota settlement grad
ually diminished, until all had removed, and the Lac-
qui-parle church was absorbed by those on the reserve.

Ascension, or lyakaptape, so named from its having
been from time immemorial the place where the Coteau
was ascended by the Dakotas on their way westward, was
the district in which a number of the Renville families
took claims. Daniel Renville, one of our licentiates, had

* This school has been much enlarged since 1877.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 261

been preaching to the church gathered there. But it was
understood all along that John B. Renville was to be
their pastor. And so it came about, as he now trans
ferred his home to that settlement.

In the spring of 1863, Mr. Renville had purchased a
little house in St. Anthony, where they made their home
for several years, Mrs. Renville teaching a school of white
children for a part of the time. Removing from there,
they pre-empted a piece of land on Beaver Creek. Dur
ing these years they had in their family from four to six
half-breed or Dakota children, whom they taught English
very successfully, and for the most part maintained them
out of their own scanty means. While living in St.
Anthony, Mr. Renville had translated "Precept Upon
Precept," which was printed in Boston, and became
thenceforth one of our Dakota school-books.

As Mr. Daniel Renville was now released from labor at
Ascension, I proposed his name to the Good Will church,
and advised them to elect him to be their religious
teacher. But when the election took place they all voted
for me. I thanked them for the honor they did me, and
told them that it could not be. Our plan of missionary
work was changed. Henceforth the preaching and pas
toral work were to be done almost exclusively by men
from among themselves. It was better for them that it
should be so, for only in that way would they learn to
support their own Gospel. We missionaries had never
asked them to contribute anything toward our support.
It was manifestly incongruous that we should do so. And
yet they were so far advanced in the knowledge of Chris
tian duties that they ought to assume the burden of con
tributing to the support of their own religious teachers.
It would be a means of grace to them. Moreover, a man_

262 MARY AND I.

who spoke the language natively had great advantage
over us, both in preaching and pastoral work.

When I had made this speech to them, they went
again into an election, and chose Daniel Renville to be
their pastor. He was soon afterward ordained and
installed by the Dakota Presbytery, and continued with
the Good Will church about six years. Previous to this
time, the original Dakota Presbytery had been divided
into the Mankato and Dakota, the latter of which was
again confined to the Dakota tield, as it had been when
first formed in 1845.

At this time Solomon was the pastor of the Long Hol
low church, and Louis was stated supply at Fort Wads-
worth, or Kettle Lakes, and Thomas Good a licentiate
preacher at Buffalo Lake. Some time after this the
Mayasan church was organized, and Louis called to take
charge of it, David Gray Cloud coming into his place at
Fort Wadsworth.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church had
set on foot their Million Thank Offering effort, which was
available for poor churches in erecting houses of worship.
By means of this outside help, the Ascension church and
the Long Hollow church, as well as the Homestead Set
tlement church on the Big Sioux, were enabled to build
houses — two of them of logs. The building at Long
Hollow continues to be occupied by the church, while the
other two houses have given place to larger and better
frame buildings.

In the spring of 1871 our Dakota church organizations
were eight, viz. : The Pilgrim Church, at Santee, with
267 members, Rev. Artemas Ehnamane and Rev. Titus
Ichadooze pastors ; The Flandreau or River Bend church,
on the Big Sioux, with 107 members, Joseph Iron-old-

FOKTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 263

man pastor elect; the Lac-qui-parle church, with 41
members, now without a pastor ; the Ascension church,
on the Sisseton reservation, with 69 members, Rev.
John B. Renville pastor ; the Dry Wood Lake or Good
Will church, with 42 members, Rev. Daniel Renville
pastor ; the Long Hollow church, with 80 members, Rev.
Solomon Toonkan-shaecheya pastor ; the Kettle Lakes or
Fort Wadsworth church, with 38 members, Rev. Louis
Mazawakinyanna stated supply ; and the recently organ
ized church at Yankton agency, with 19 members, in
charge of Rev. John P. Williamson.

In the month of May of this year, the first number of
the lapi Oaye appeared. It was a very modest little
sheet of four pages, eight by ten inches, and altogether
in the Dakota language, with the motto, " Taku washta
okiya, taku shecha kepajin," which, being interpreted,
would read, " To help what is good, to oppose what is
bad." Rev. John P. Williamson, who had the sole charge
of it for the first twelve numbers, in his first Dakota edi
torial, thus accounts for its origin : " For three years I have
prepared a little tract at New Year, which Mr. E. R.
Pond printed, and I distributed gratuitously to all who
could read Dakota. And many persons liked it, and
some said, ' If we had a newspaper, we would pay for it.'
I have trusted to the truth of this saying, and so this
winter have been preparing to print one. But I have
found many obstacles in the way, and have not gotten
out the first number until now." As it was to be the
means of conveying the thoughts and speech of one per
son to another, it was proper, he said, to call it lapi
Oaye, or "Word Carrier." The subscription price was
placed at fifty cents a year. This was not increased after

264 MARY AND I.

the paper was doubled in size, as it was the first of Jan
uary, 1873, at the commencement of the second volume.
When the change was made, I was taken in as associate
editor, and hencefortli about one-third of the letter-press
was to be in the English language. By this means we
could communicate missionary intelligence to white peo
ple, and thus secure their aid in supporting the paper, as
well as extend the interest in our work. And, as an
attraction to the Dakotas, a full-page picture has been
generally added.

In starting the paper, the main object proposed was
to stimulate education among the Dakotas, so that we
were not disappointed to find that, in addition to all that
came in from subscriptions, several hundred dollars were
required from the missionary funds to square up the
year. But we lived in hope, and do so still, that the
time will come when the enterprise will be self-support
ing. It has proved itself to be an exceedingly important
assistant in our missionary work, which we can not afford
to let die.

With the homesteaders on the Bio: Sioux, on the 23d

C?

of June, 1871, we held our first general conference of the
Dakota churches.* From the Sisseton Agency there
went down John B. Renville, Daniel Renville, and
Solomon, of the pastors, with several elders and myself.
Dr. Williamson came up from St. Peter; and John P.
Williamson, A. L. Riggs, and Arternas Ehnarnane, and
others, came over from the Missouri River. Year by
year, from that time on, we have continued to hold
these meetings, and they have constantly increased in

* This was preliminary to the regularly organized conference
which met the next year.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 265

interest and importance. On this first occasion, four or
five days were spent, and religious meetings held each
day. The circumstances by which we were surrounded
intensified the interest. As yet there was no church or
school-house in which we could assemble, and our meet
ings were held out-of-doors, or under a booth in connec
tion with Mr. All Iron's cabin.

This colony of more than one hundred church members
had located near the eastern line of Dakota Territory, in
the beautiful and fertile valley of the Big Sioux River.
Their settlement lay along that stream for twenty-five or
thirty miles, its centre being about forty miles above the
thriving town of Sioux Falls.

The most of these men were in 1862 engaged in the
Sioux outbreak in Minnesota. For three years they
were held in military prisons. Meanwhile, their families
and the remnants of their tribe had been deported to the
Missouri River; so that when they found themselves
together again, it was at Niobrara, Neb., or soon
afterward at the newly established Santee agency a few
miles below.

What impulse stirred them up to break away from
their own tribe, to which they had but just returned, and
try the hard work of making a home among coldly dis
posed if not hostile whites ? What made them leave all
their old traditional ties and relationships and go forth as
strangers and wanderers ? It must be borne in mind that
they left behind them the food which the government
issued weekly on the agency, to seek a very precarious
living by farming, for which they had neither tools nor
teams. They also gave up the advantage of the yearly
issue of clothing, and the prospect of such considerable
gifts of horses, oxen, cows, wagons, and ploughs, as were

266 MARY AND I.

distributed occasionally on the agency. More than this :
those who had already received such gifts from the
United States Indian Civilization Fund had to leave all
behind, though they went out for the very purpose of
seeking a higher civilization. They went forth in the
face, moreover, of great opposition and derision from the
chiefs of their tribe. The United States Indian agent
was also against them. Whence, then, did they have the
strength of purpose which enabled them to face all this
opposition, brave all these dangers?

The germs of this movement are only to be found in
the resolves for a new life made by these men when in
prison ! There all were nominally, and the larger part
were really, converted to Christ. All of them in some
sense experienced a conversion of thought and purpose.
There they agreed to abolish all the old tribal arrange
ments and customs. Old things were to be done away,
and all things were to become new. And as they had
been electing their church officers, so they would elect
the necessary civil officers.

But when they came to their people they found the old
Indian system in full power, backed by the authority of
the United States. Of the old chiefs who ruled them in
Minnesota, Little Crow and Little Six, the leaders of the
rebellion, were dead ; but the others, who had been kept
out of active participation, not by their loyalty to the
United States, but by their jealousy of these leaders, had
saved their necks and were again in power. A few had
been appointed to vacancies by the United States agent,
and the ring was complete. And our friends were com
manded at once to fall in under the old chiefs before they
could receive any rations. They must be Indians or
starve ! Nothing was to be hoped for from within the

POETY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 267

tribe, nor from Washington. The Indian principle was
regnant there also. Nothing was left to them but to seek
some other land. One said: " I could not bear to have
my children grow up nothing but Indians"; so they all
felt.

They made their hegira in March, 1869. In this re
gion this is the worst month in the year, but they had to
take advantage of the absence of their agent and the
chiefs at Washington. Twenty-five families went in this
company. A few had ponies, but they mostly took their
way on foot, packing their goods and children, one hun
dred and thirty miles over the Dakota prairies. About
midway a fearful snow-storm burst upon them. They
lost their way, and one woman froze to death. The next
autumn fifteen other families joined them, and twenty
more followed the year after. Even one of the chiefs,
finding the movement likely to succeed, left his chieftain
ship and its emoluments to join them. He thought it
more to be a man than to be a chief.

Existence was a hard struggle for several years; for
these Indians had neither ploughs nor working teams.
But they exchanged work with their white neighbors, and
so had a little " breaking " done. And in the fall and
early spring they went trapping, and by this means raised
:i little money to pay entry fees on their lands and buy
their clothes. On one of these hunting expeditions, Iron
Old Man, the acting pastor of their church and a leader
in the colony, was overtaken, while chasing elk, by one of
the Dakota " blizzards," and he and his companion in the
hunt perished in the snow-drifts.

Joseph Iron Old Man was not an old man, notwith
standing his name, but a man in middle life. He had
been a Hoonkayape or elder in the prison, re-elected on

268 MARY AtfD I.

the consolidation of the Pilgrim Church in Nebraska, and
thus elected to the same office a third time in the River
Bend Church on the Big Sioux. After this, when the
church met to elect a religious teacher, he was chosen
almost unanimously. It was expected that the Presby
tery would have confirmed the action of the church at
this gathering in June. But this was not to be. On the
seventh day of April, when it was bright and warm, he and
another Dakota man, as they were out hunting, came
upon half-a-dozen- elk. They chased them first on
horseback, until their horses were jaded. Then, leaving
the horses, they kept up the pursuit on foot, in the mean
time divesting themselves of all superfluous clothing. In
this condition, the storm came upon them suddenly, when
they were out in the open prairie between the Big Sioux
and the James River. Escape was impossible, and to
live through the storm and cold in their condition was
equally impossible, even for an Indian. Far and near
their friends hunted, but did not find them until the first
day of May.

So the hopes and plans of the colony and the church
were disappointed. At our meeting, we expressed sor
row and sympathy, and endeavored to lead the people to
a higher trust in God. The young men might fail and
fall, but the command was still, "Hope thou in God."
Before we left them, they elected another leader — Will
iamson O. Rogers — Mr. All Iron.

The Dakota mission had been, from its commencement,
under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions. As Presbyterians, we had been connected
with the New School branch. But now the two schools
had been united. Many — nay, most — of the New

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 269

School Assembly, who had worked with the American
Board, now thought it their duty to withdraw, and
connect themselves and their contributions with the As
sembly's Board of Foreign Missions. The ploughshare
must be run through the mission fields also. We in the
Dakota mission were invited to transfer our relations.
The prudential committee at Boston left us to act out
our own sweet will. Dr. T. S. Williamson and Rev. John
P. Williamson elected to go over to the Presbyterian
Board. For myself, I did not care to do so. Although
conscientiously a Presbyterian, I was not, and am not, so
much of one as to draw me away from the associations
which had been growing for a third of a century. Whether
I reasoned rightly or wrongly, I conceived that I had a
character with the American Board that I could not
transfer ; and I was too old to build up another reputa
tion. Besides, Alfred L. Riggs had now joined the mis
sion, and as a Congregational minister he could do no
otherwise than retain his connection with the A. B. C. F.M.
The case was a plain one. We divided. Some ques
tions then came up as to the field and the work. These
were very soon amicably settled, on a basis which, so far
as I know, has continued to be satisfactory from that day
to this. The churches on the Sisseton reservation and
at the Santee were to continue in connection with the
American Board: while the Big Sioux and Yankton
agency churches would be counted as under the Presby
terian Board. Henceforth, in regard to common expenses
of Dakota publications, they were to bear one-third, and
we two-thirds.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1870-1873. — A. L. Riggs Builds at Santee. — The Santee High
School. — Visit to Fort Sully. — Change of Agents at Sisseton.
— Second Marriage. — Annual Meeting at Good Will. — Grand
Gathering. — New Treaty Made at Sisseton. — Nina Foster
Riggs. — Our Trip to Fort Sully. — An Incident by the Way. —
Stop at Santee. — Pastor Ehnamane. — His Deer Hunt. — An
nual Meeting in 1873. — Rev. S. J. Humphrey's Visit. —Mr.
lumphrey's Sketch. — Where They Come From. — Morning
Call. — Visiting the Teepees. — The Religious Gathering. — The
Moderator. — Questions Discussed. — The Personnel. — Putting
up a Tent. — Sabbath Service. — Mission Reunion.

FROM Flandreau, the Dakota homestead settlement on
the Big Sioux, I accompanied A. L. Riggs and J. P. Will
iamson to the Missouri. A year before this time, in the
month of May, 1870, Alfred had removed his family from
Woodstock, 111., to the Santee agency. The mission
buildings heretofore had been of the cheapest kind. Only
one small house had a shingle roof ; the rest were " shacks."
Before his arrival, some preparation had been made for
building — logs of cotton-wood had been cut and hauled
to the government saw-mill. These were cut up into
framing lumber. The pine boards and all finishing ma
terials were taken up from Yankton and Sioux City and
Chicago, and so he proceeded to erect a family dwelling
and a school-house, which could be used for church pur
poses.

These were so far finished as to be occupied in the
autumn ; and a school was opened with better accommo-

270

FOKTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 271

dations and advantages than heretofore. In the Decem
ber lapi Oaye, there appeared a notice of the Santee
High School, Rev. A. L. Kiggs Principal, with Eli
Abraham and Albert Frazier assistants. The advertise
ment said, "If any one should give you a deer, you
would probably say, 'You make me glad.' But how
much more would you be glad if one should teach you
how to hunt and kill many deer. So, likewise, if one
should teach you a little wisdom he would make you glad,
but you would be more glad if one taught you how to
acquire knowledge." This the Santee High School pro
posed to do.

On reaching the Santee, I met by appointment Thomas
L. Riggs, who had come on from Chicago at the end of
his second seminary year. Together we proceeded up to
Fort Sully, where we spent a good part of the summer
that remained. But this, with what came of our visit,
will be related in a following chapter. In the autumn I
returned to Good Will, and the winter was one of work,
on the line which we had been following.

During the early part of this winter, 1871-72, a change
was made of agents at Sisseton ; Dr. J. W. Daniels re
signed, and Rev. M. N. Adams came in his place. Dr.
Daniels was Bishop Whipple's appointee, and, as the
Episcopalians were not engaged in the missionary work
on this reservation, it was evidently proper, under the
existing circumstances, that the selection should be ac
corded to the American Board. As, many years before,
Mr. Adams had been a missionary among a portion of
these people, he came as United States Indian agent,
with an earnest wish to forward in all proper ways the
cause of education and civilization and the general up
lifting of the whole people. He met with a good deal of

272 MARY AND I.

opposition, but continued to be agent more than three
years, and left many memorials of his interest and effi
ciency, in the school-houses he erected, as well as in the
hearts of the Christian people.

The object that had been paramount in taking our
family to Beloit in 1865 was but partly accomplished
when Mary died in the spring of 1869. Since that time
three years had passed. Robert had gone back to Beloit
to school, and was now ready to enter the freshman
class of the college. Cornelia was in her fourteenth
year, and her education only fairly begun. It was need
ful that she should have the advantages of a good
school. To accomplish my desire for their education
it seemed best to reoccupy our vacant house. That
spring of 1872, I was commissioner from the Dakota
Presbytery to the General Assembly, which met in
Detroit. At the close of the assembly, I went down
to Granville, Ohio, and, in accordance with an arrange
ment previously made, I married Mrs. Annie Baker
Ackley, who had once been a teacher with us at Hazel-
wood, and more recently had spent several years in
the employ of the American Missionary Association,
in teaching the freedmen. We at once proceeded
to the Good Will mission station, where the summer
was spent, and then in the autumn opened our house
in Beloit.

The meeting of the ministers and elders and represen
tatives of the Dakota churches, which was held with the
River Bend church on the Big Sioux, had been found
very profitable to all. At that time a like conference
had been arranged for, to meet on the 25th of June,
1872, with the church of Good Will, on the Sisseton

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 273

reservation. The announcement was made in the
April lapi Oaye. In the invitation nine churches
are mentioned, viz. : The Santee, Yankton, River Bend,
Lac-qui-parle, Ascension, Good Will, Buffalo Lake,
Long Hollow, and Kettle Lakes. It was said that
subjects interesting and profitable to all would be
discussed ; and especially was the presence of the
Holy Spirit desired and prayed for, since, without God
present with us, the assembly would be only a dead
body.

In the green month of June, when the roses on the
prairie began to bloom, then they began to assemble at
our Dakota Conference. Dr. T. S. Williamson came up
from his home at St. Peter — 200 miles. John P. Will
iamson, from the Yankton agency, and A. L. Riggs,
from Santee, brought with them Rev. Joseph Ward,
pastor of the Congregational Church in Yankton. As
they came by Sioux Falls and Flandreau, their whole
way would not be much under 300 miles. Thomas L.
Riggs, who had commenced his new station in the close
of the winter, came across the country from Fort
Sully on horseback, a distance of about 220 miles,
having with him a Dakota guide and soldier guard.
They rode it in less than five days. From all parts
came the Dakota pastors and elders and messengers
of the churches. The gathering was so large that a
booth was made for the Sabbath service. It was an
inspiration to us all. It was unanimously voted to hold
the next year's meeting with the Yanktons at the Yank-
ton agency.

At the Sisseton agency, in the month of September,
a semi-treaty was made by Agents M. N. Adams and
W. H. Forbes, and James Smith, Jr., of St. Paul,

274 MARY AND I.

United States commissioners, with the Dakota Indians
of the Lake Traverse and Devil's Lake reservations,
by which they relinquish all their claim on the country
of North eastern Dakota through which the Northern
Pacific Railroad runs. By this arrangement, educa
tion would have been made compulsory, and the men
would have been enabled to obtain patents for their
land within some reasonable time; but the Senate
struck out everything except the ceding of the land
and the compensation therefor. Our legislators do
not greatly desire that Indians should become white
men.

When Thanksgiving Day came this year, Mr. Adams
dedicated a fine brick school-house, which he had th.it
summer erected, in the vicinity of the agency. Of this
occasion he wrote, " It was indeed a day of thanksgiving
and praise with us, and to me an event of the deepest
interest. And I hope that good and lasting impres
sions were made there upon the minds of some of this
people."

In the work of Bible translation, I had been occupied
with the book of Daniel in the summer, and, in the
winter that followed, my first copy of the Minor Proph
ets was made. When the spring came, I hied away to
the Dakota country. This time my course was to the
Missouri River. Thomas had been married in Bangor,
Me., to Nina Foster, daughter of Hon. John B. Foster,
and sister of Mrs. Charles H. Howard of the Advance.
They came west, and, as the winter was not yet past,
Thomas went on from Chicago alone, and Nina remained
with her sister until navigation should open. And so it
came to pass that she and I were company for each other
to Fort Sully.

FOETY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 275

As we left Yankton in the stage for Santee, where we
were to stop a few days and wait for an up-river boat, an
incident occurred which must have been novel to the girl
from Bangor. The day was just breaking when the
stage had made out its complement of passengers, ex
cept one. There were six men on the two seats before
us, and Nina and I were behind. At a little tavern
in the suburbs of the town, the ninth passenger was
taken in. As he came out we could see that he was the
worse for drinking. I at once shoved over to the
middle of the seat, and let him in by my side. He
turned out to be a burly French half-breed, or a French
man who had a Dakota family. We had gone but a
little distance, when he said he was going to smoke. I
objected to his smoking inside the stage. He begged
the lady's pardon a thousand times, but said he must
smoke. By this time he had hunted in his pockets, but
did not find his pipe. " O mon pipe ! " The stage-
driver must turn around and go back — it cost $75.
He worked himself and the rest of us into quite
an excitement. By and by he said to me: "Do
you know who I am ? " I said I did not. He
said, "I am Red Cloud, and I have killed a great
many white men." " Ah," said I, " you are Red Cloud ?
I do not believe you can talk Dakota " — and immediately
I commenced talking Dakota. He turned around and
stared at me. " Who are you ? " he said. From that
moment he was my friend, and ever so good.

It was now the month of May, but there were deep
snow banks still in the ravines on the north side of the
river. A terrible storm had swept over the country
from the north-east about the middle of April. A hun
dred Indian ponies and forty or fifty head of cattle at

276 MARY AND I.

the Santee agency had perished. This made spring
work go heavily.

I was interested in examining the building erected last
summer for the girls' boarding-school. It should have
been completed before the winter came on, according to
the agreement. But now it is intended to have it ready
for occupancy the first of September. When finished, it
will accommodate twenty or twenty-four girls and also
the lady teachers.

On the Sabbath we spent there, I preached in the
morning, and Pastor Artemas Ehnamane preached in the
afternoon. The Word Carrier tells a good story of this
Santee pastor. In his younger days, Ehnamane was one
of the best Dakota hunters. Tall and straight as an
arrow, he was literally as swift as a deer. And he
learned to use a gun with wonderful precision. Only a
few years before this time, I was traveling with him,
when, in the evening, he took his gun and went around a
lake, and brought into camp twelve large ducks. He had
shot three times.

Well, in the fall of 1872 his church gave him a vaca
tion of six weeks, and "he turned his footsteps to the
wilds of the Running Water, where his heart grew
young, and his rifle cracked the death-knell of the deer
and antelope.

" Being on the track of the hostile Sioux who go to fight
the Pawnees, one evening he found himself near a camp
of the wild Brules. He was weak, they were strong and
perhaps hostile. It was time for him to show his colors.
His kettles were filled to the brim. The proud warriors
were called, and as they filled their mouths with his
savory meat, he filled their ears with the sound of the
Gospel trumpet, and gave them their first view of eter-

FORTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 277

nal life. Thus the deer hunt became a soul hunt. The
wild Brules grunted their friendly 'yes,' as they left
Ehnamane's teepee, their mouths filled with venison, and
their hearts with the good seed of truth, from which
some one will reap the fruit after many days."

On the 13th of June, 1873, the second regular annual
meeting of the Dakota Conference commenced its sessions
at Rev. John P. Williamson's mission at the Yankton
agency. The Word Carrier for August says this was a
very full meeting : " Every missionary and assistant mis
sionary, except Mrs. S. R. Riggs and W. K. Morris, was
present, also every native preacher and a full list of other
delegates." I came down from Fort Sully with T. L.
Riggs and his wife, who had only joined him a few weeks
before. Martha Riggs Morris and her two children came
over from Sisseton — three hundred miles — with the
Dakota delegation. They had a hard journey. The
roads were bad and the streams were flooded. There
was no way of crossing the Big Sioux except by swim
ming, and those who could not swim were pulled over in
a poor boat improvised from a wagon-bed. It was not
without a good deal of danger. Those from the Santee
agency had only the Missouri River to cross, and a day's
journey to make. The interest of our meeting was greatly
increased by the presence of Rev. S. J. Humphrey, D.D.,
District Secretary of the American Board, Chicago ; and
Rev. E. H. Avery, pastor of the Presbyterian church in
Sioux City.

Mr. Williamson's new chapel made a very pleasant
place for the gatherings. Pastoral Support, Pastoral
Visitation, and Vernacular Teaching were among the
live topics discussed. Their eager consideration and

278 MAKY AND I.

prompt discussion of these questions were in strong con
trast with the stolid indifference and mulish reticence of
the former life of these native Dakotas, and showed the
working of a superhuman agency. Our friend S. J.
Humphrey wrote and published a very life-like descrip
tion of what he saw and heard on this visit, and it does
me great pleasure to let him bear testimony to the mar
vels wrought by the power of the Gospel of Christ.

" The annual meeting of the Dakota Mission was held
at Yankton agency, commencing June 13. We esteem
it a rare privilege to have been present on that occasion
and to have seen with our own eyes the marvelous trans
formations wrought by the Gospel among this people.
Thirty-six hours by rail took us to Yankton, the border
town of civilization. Twelve hours more in stage and
open wagon along the north bank of the Missouri — the
Big Muddy, as the Indians rightly call it — carried us
sixty miles into the edge of the vast open prairie, and
into the heart of the Yankton reservation. Here, scat
tered up and down the river bottom for thirty miles, live
the Yanktons, one of the Dakota bands, about 2000 in
number. Thirty miles below, on the opposite bank, in
Nebraska, are the Santees. Up the river for many hun
dreds of miles at different points other reservations are
set off, while several wilder bands still hunt the buffalo
on the wide plains that stretch westward to the Black
Hills. The Sissetons, another family of this tribe, are
located near Lake Traverse, on the eastern boundary of
Dakota Territory. This is the field of the Dakota Mission.
The chief bands laid hold of thus far are the Sisseton, the
Santee, and the Yankton. A new point has recently
been taken at Fort Sully, among the Teetons.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 279

"It was from these places, lying apart in their extremes
at least 300 miles, that more than a hundred Indians
gathered at this annual meeting. On Thursday after
noon the hospitable doors of Rev. J. P. Williamson's
spacious log house opened just in time to give us shelter
from a fierce storm of wind and rain. The next morning
the Santees, fifty of them from the Pilgrim Church, some
on foot, some on pony-back, and a few in wagons, strag
gled in, and pitched their camp, in Indian fashion, on the
open space near the mission house. About noon the Sis-
setons appeared, a dilapidated crowd of more than forty,
weary and foot-sore with their 300 miles tramp through
ten tedious days. Among them was one white person, a
woman, with her two children, the youngest an infant,
not a captive, but a missionary's wife, traveling thus among
a people whom the Gospel had made captives themselves,
chiefly through the labors of an honored father and a
mother of blessed memory. It intimates the courage and
endurance needed for such a trip to know that there were
almost no human habitations on the way, and that swollen
rivers were repeatedly crossed in the wagon-box, stripped
of its wheels and made sea-worthy by canvas swathed
underneath.

" An hour afterward, from 200 miles in the opposite
direction, the Fort Sully delegation appeared. For
Father Riggs, and the younger son, famous as a hard
rider, this journey was no great affair. But the tenderly
reared young wife — how she could endure the five days
of wagon and tent life is among the mysteries.

" That this was no crowd of Indian revellers come to a
sun dance (as it might have been of yore) was soon man
ifest. The first morning after their arrival, a strange,
chanting voice, like that of a herald, mingled with our

280 MARY AND I.

day-break dreams. Had we been among the Mussulmans
we should have thought it the muezzin's cry. Of course,
all was Indian to us, but we learned afterward that it
was indeed a call to prayer, with this English render
ing:—

" 'Morning is coining! Morning is coming!

Wake up! Wake up! Come to sing! Come to pray!'

" In a few minutes, for it does not take an Indian long
to dress, the low cadence of many voices joining in one
of our own familiar tunes rose sweetly on the air, telling
us that the day of their glad solemnities had begun.
This was entirely their own notion, and was repeated
each of the four days we were together.

" On this same morning another sharp contrast of the
old and the new appeared. By invitation of the elder
Williamson, we took a walk among the teepees of the
natives who live on the ground. Passing, with due
regard for Dakota etiquette, those which contained only
women, we came to one which we might properly enter.
The inmates were evidently of the heathen party. A
man, apparently fifty, sat upon a skin, entirely nude
save the inevitable blanket, which he occasionally drew
up about his waist. A lad of sixteen, in the same state,
lounged in an obscure corner. The mother, who, we
learned, occasionally attended meeting, wore a drabbled
dress, doubtless her only garment. Two or three others
were present in different stages of undress, and all lazy,
stolid, dirty. As we looked into these impassive faces
we could understand the saying of one of the missiona
ries, that when you first speak to an audience of wild
Indians you might as well preach to the back of their
heads, so far as any responsive expression is concerned.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 281

And yet, now and then, the dull glow of a latent ferocity
would light up the eye, like that of a beast of prey
looking for his next meal. Alas ! for the noble red man !
In spite of what the poets say, we found him a filthy,
stupid savage. All this we have time to see while Mr.
Williamson talks to them in the unknown tongue. But
now the little church bell calls us to the mission chapel.
It is already filled — the men on one side, the women on
the other. The audience numbers perhaps two hundred.
"All classes and ages are there. All are decently
dressed. Were it not for the dark faces, you would not
distinguish them from an ordinary country congregation.
The hymn has already been given out, and each, with
book in hand, has found the place. The melodeon sets
the tune, and then, standing, they sing. It is no weak-
lunged performance, we can assure you. Not altogether
harmonious, perhaps, but vastly sweeter than a war-
whoop, we fancy ; certainly hearty and sincere, and, we
have no doubt, an acceptable offering of praise. A low-
voiced prayer, by a native pastor, uttered with reverent
unction, follows. Another singing, and then the sermon.
One of the Renvilles is the preacher. We do not know
what it is all about. But the ready utterance, the mel
lifluent flow of words, the unaffected earnestness of the
speaker, and the fixed attention of the audience, mark it
as altogether a success. While he speaks to the people,
we study their faces. They are certainly a great im
provement upon those we saw in the teepee. But not
one or two generations of Christian life will work off the
stupid, inexpressive look that ages of heathenism have
graven into them. There is a steady gain, however.
Just as in a dissolving view there come slowly out on
the canvas glimpses of a fair landscape, mingling

282 MARY AND I.

strangely with the dim outlines of the disappearing old
ruin, so there is struggling through these stony faces an
expression of the new creation within, the converted soul
striving to light up and inform the hard features, and
displace the ruin of the old savage life. But the poor
women! Their case is even worse. They start from
a lower plane. Some of these are young, some are
mothers with their infants, many are well treated wives,
not a few take part with propriety in the women's meet
ings, and yet you look in vain among them all for one
happy face. They wear a beaten and abused look, as if
blows and cruelty had been their daily lot, as if they
lived even only by sufferance. This is the settled look
of their faces when in repose. But speak to them ; let
the missionary tell them you are their friend ; and their
eyes light up with a gentle gladness, showing that a true
womanly soul only slumbers in them. This came out
beautifully at a later point in the meeting. A motion
was about to be put, when some one insisted that on that
question the women should express their minds. This
was cordially assented to, and they were requested to
stand with the men in a rising vote. The girls, of
course, giggled ; but the women modestly rose in their
places, and it was worth a trip all the way from Chicago
to see the look of innocent pride into which their sad
faces were for once surprised.

" But sermon is done. There is another loud-voiced
hymn, and then the meeting of days is declared duly
opened. It is to be a composite, a session of Presbytery,
for they happen to have taken that form, and a Con
ference of churches. A leading candidate for moderator
is Ehnamane, a Santee pastor. How far the fact that he
is a great hunter and a famous paddleman affects the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 283

vote we can not say. This may have had more weight :
his father was a great conjurer and war prophet. Before
he died he said to his son : —

" * The white man is coming into the country, and your
children may learn to read. But promise me that you
will never leave the religion of your ancestors.'

" He promised. Arid he says now that had the Min
nesota outbreak not come, in which his gods were
worsted by the white man's God, he would have kept
true to his pledge. As it is, he now preaches the faitli
which once he destroyed, and they make him moderator.

" We will not follow the meeting throughout the days.
There are resolutions and motions to amend and all
that, just like white folks, and plenty of speech-making.
Now a telling hit sends a ripple of laughter through the
room; and now the moistened eyes and trembling lip tell
that some deep vein of feeling has been touched. Grave
questions are under discussion : Pastoral Support, open
ing out into general benevolence ; Pastoral Visitation, its
necessity, methods, difficulties, and also as a work per
taining to elders, deacons, and to the whole membership ;
Primary Education — shall it be in the vernacular or in
English ? a most spirited debate, resulting in this : iJRe-
solved, That so long as the children speak the Dakota at
home, education should be begun in the Dakota.' Then
the lapi Oaye, the Word Carrier — for they have their
newspaper, and it has its financial troubles — comes up.
All rally to its support. But the hundred-dollar deficit
for last year, that, we suspect, comes out of the mission
aries' meagre salaries. All along certain more strictly
ecclesiastical matters are mingled in. James Red- Wing
is brought forward to be approbated as a preacher at Fort
Sully. An application is considered for forming a new

284 MARY AND I.

church on the Sisseton reserve. The church at White
Banks asks aid for a church building, and a Yankton
elder is examined and received as a candidate for the
ministry. The Indians, in large numbers, share freely
in all these deliberations. Everything is decorous and
dignified, sometimes evidently intensely interesting, we
the while burning to know what they are saying, and
getting the general drift only through a friendly whisper
in the ear. While they are discussing, we will make a
few notes : about one-third of these before us were
imprisoned for the massacre of 1862, although, probably,
none of them took active part in it. The larger portion
of them were made freemen of the Lord in that great
prison revival at Mankato, as a result of which 300 joined
the church in one day. They were also of that number
who, when being transferred by steamer to Davenport,
* passed St. Paul in chains, indeed, but singing the fifty-
first Psalm, to the tune of Old Hundred. Seven of these
men are regularly ordained ministers, pastors of as many
churches; two others are licentiate preachers. Quite a
number are teachers, deacons, elders, or delegates of the
nine churches belonging to the mission, and they report
a goodly fellowship of 775 Dakota members, 79 of whom
have come into the fold since the last meeting.

" Two or three of these men are of some historic note.
John B. Renville, who sits at the scribe's desk, was the
main one in inaugurating the counter revolution in the
hostilities of 1862. Yonder is Peter Big-Fire, who, by
his address, turned the war party from the trail of the
fleeing missionaries. And there is Gray-Cloud, for five
years in the United States army, a sergeant of scouts ;
and Chaskadan, the Elder Brewster of the prison
church 5 and Lewis JVIazawakinyanna, formerly chaplain

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 285

among the fort scouts, now pastor of Mayasan Church,
and Hokshidanminiamani, once a conjurer, now no
longer raising spirits in the teepee, but humbly seeking
to be taught of the Divine Spirit ; — and all these — ah !
our eyes fill with tears as we think that but for the
blessed Gospel they would still be worshipers of devils.

"The meeting is adjourned, and the brethren are com
ing forward to greet us. We never grasped hands with
a heartier good- will. But somehow our sense of humor
will not be altogether quiet as, one after another, we are
introduced to Elder Big-Fire, Rev. Mr. All-good, Deacon
Boy-that-walks-on-tlie- water, Pastor Little-Iron-Thunder,
Elder Gray-Cloud, and Rev. Mr. Stone-that-paints-itself-
red. But they are grand men, and their names are quite
as euphonious as some English ones we could pick out.

" While supper is preparing, we will look a moment at
a phase of tent life. A sudden gust of wind has blown
over two of the large teepees. And now they are to be
set up again. One is occupied by the men, the other by
the women. Under the old regime the women do all this
kind of work. But now the men are willing to try their
hand at it, at least upon their own tent. It is new work,
however, and, while they are making futile attempts at
tying together the ends of the first three poles, the moth
ers and wives have theirs already up and nearly covered.
At length a broad-chested woman steps over among them,
strips off their ill tied strings, repacks the ends of the
poles, and with two or three deft turns binds them fast,
and all with a kind of nervous contempt as if she were
saying — she probably is: ' Oh, you stupid fellows!'
The after work does not seem to be much more success
ful, and they stand around in a helpless sort of way,
while the young women are evidently bantering them

286 MARY AND I.

with good-natured jests, much as a bevy of white girls
would do in seeing a man vainly trying to stitch on a
missing button, each new bungling mistake drawing the
fire of the fair enemy in a fresh explosion of laughter.
How the thing comes out we do not stay to see, but we
suspect that the practised hands of the good women
finally come to the rescue.

" Sunday is the chief day of interest, and yet there is
less to report about that. In the morning, at nine o'clock,
Rev. A. L. Riggs conducts a model Bible class, with re
marks on the art of questioning. At the usual hour of
service the church is crowded, and Rev. Solomon Toon-
kanshaichiye preaches, we doubt not, a most excellent
sermon. Immediately following is the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper with the fathers of the mission, Revs. Dr.
Riggs and Williamson officiating, a tender and solemn
scene, impressive even to us who understand no single
word of the service, for grave Indian deacons reverently
pass the elements ; and many receive them which but for
a knowledge of this dear sacrifice might have reckoned
it their chief glory that their hands were stained with
human blood.

"Just as we close, in strange contrast with the spirit of
the hour, two young Indian braves go by the windows.
They are tricked out with all manner of savage frippery.
Ribbons stream in the wind, strings of discordant sleigh-
bells grace their horses' necks and herald their approach.
Each carries a drawn sword which flashes in the sunlight,
and a plentiful use of red ochre and eagles' feathers
completes the picture. As they ride by on their scrawny
little ponies the effect is indescribably absurd. But they
think it very fine, and, like their cousins, the white fops,
have simply come to show themselves.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 287

" In the afternoon is an English service, and then one
wholly conducted by the natives themselves. No even
ing meetings are held, as these people that rise with the
birds are not far behind them in going to their rest. On
Monday the business is finished, and the farewells are
said. And on Tuesday morning the various delegations
start for their distant homes.

" We have no space to speak of the meeting of the
mission proper. It was held at Mr. Williamson's house
during the evenings. Nearly all its members were pres
ent, — a delightful reunion it was to them and us, — and
many questions of serious interest were amply discussed.

We dare not trust our pen to write about these noble
men and women as we would. The results of their
labors abundantly testify for them, and their record is on
high. May they receive an hundredfold for their work
of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our
Lord Jesus Christ."

CHAPTER XIX.

1873-1874. — The American Board at Minneapolis. — The Nidus
of the Dakota Mission. — Large Indian Delegation. — Ehna-
mane and Mazakootemane. — "Then and Now." — The
Woman's Meeting. — Xina Foster Riggs and Lizzie Bishop —
Miss Bishop's Work and Early Death. — Manual Labor Board
ing-School at Sisseton. — Building Dedicated. — M. N. Adams,
Agent. — School Opened. — Mrs. Armor and Mrs. Morris. —
"My Darling in God's Garden." —Visit to Fort Berthold.—
Mandans, Rees, and Hidatsa. — Dr. W. Matthews' Hidatsa
Grammar. — Beliefs. — Missionary Interest in Berthold. —
Down the Missouri. — Annual Meeting at Santee. — Normal
School. — Dakotas Build a Church at Ascension. — Journey to
the O jib was with E. P. Wheeler. — Leech Lake and Red Lake,
— On the Gitche Gumme. — "The Stoneys." —Visit to
Odanah. — Hope for Ojibwas.

THE American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions was to hold its annual meeting in the autumn of
1873 in the city of Minneapolis. That was almost the
identical spot where our mission had been commenced,
nearly forty years before. And it was comparatively near
to the centre of our present work. These were reasons
why we should make a special effort to bring the Dakota
mission, on this occasion, prominently before this great
Christian gathering. Our churches on the Sisseton
reservation were only a little more than 200 miles away.
Taking advantage of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad,
it would only be a three-days journey. Accordingly, I
applied to my friend Gen. Geo. L. Becker of St. Paul,
who was then president of the road, to send me half-

288

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 289

fares for a dozen Dakota men. He generously responded,
and sent me up a free pass down for that number.

This made it possible for all the churches on the
Sisseton reservation to be represented by pastors and
elders. A. L. Riggs brought over a good delegation from
the Santee, so that we had there seventeen of our most
prominent men. The present missionaries and assistant
missionaries of the Board, except Mr. and Mrs. Morris,
were all there. Our brother John P. Williamson was
engaged in church-building, and could not attend. But
there were the Pond brothers and Dr. T. S. Williamson
accepting with glad hearts the results of their labors
commenced thirty-nine years before. And the presence
of so large an Indian delegation added much to the
popular interest of the occasion. So that the subject of
Indian missions in general, and of the Dakota mission in
particular, engaged the attention of this great meeting
for about one-third of their time. Artemas Ehnamane,
the pastor of Pilgrim Church at Santee, and Paul
Mazakootemane, the hero of the outbreak of 1862, both
made addresses before the Board, which were interpreted
by A. L. Riggs.

In the Dakota Word Carrier, we were at this time
publishing a series of " Sketches of the Dakota Mission,"
which we gathered into a pamphlet and distributed to
the thousands of Christian friends gathered there. Num
ber twelve of these sketches is mainly a contrast between
the commencement and the present state of our work
among the Dakotas, from which I make the following
extract : —

"THEN AND NOW.

"In the first days of July, 1839, a severe battle was
fought between the Dakotas and Ojibwas. The Ojibwas

290 MARY AND I.

had visited Fort Snelling during the last days of June,
expecting to receive some payment for land sold. In this
they were disappointed. The evening before they started
for their homes — a part going up the Mississippi, and a
part by the St. Croix — two young men were observed to
go to the soldiers' burying-ground, near the fort, and cry.
Their father had been killed some years before by the
Dakotas, and was buried there. The next morning they
started for their homes ; but these two young men, their
people not knowing it, went out and hid themselves that
night close by a path which wound around the shores of
Lake Harriet. In the early morning following, a Dakota
hunter walked along that path, followed by a boy. The
man was shot down, and the boy escaped to tell the
story.

" During their stay in the neighborhood of Fort
Snelling, the Ojibwas had smoked and eaten with the
Dakotas. That scalped man now lying by Lake Harriet
was an evidence of violated faith. The Dakotas were
eager to take advantage of the affront. The cry was for
vengeance ; and before the sun had set, two parties were
on the war-path.

" The young man who had been killed was the son-in-
law of Cloud-man, the chief of the Lake Calhoun village.
Scarlet Bird was the brother-in-law of the chief. So
Scarlet Bird was the leader of the war-party which came
to where the city of Minneapolis is now built, and about
the setting of the sun crossed over to the east side ; and
there, seating the warriors in a row on the sand, he dis
tributed the beads and ribbons and other trinkets of the
man who had been killed, and with them "prayed" the
whole party into committing the deeds of the next
morning. The morning's sun, as it arose, saw these same

FOKTY YEAES WITH THE SIOUX. 291

men smiting down the Ojibwas, just after they had left
camp, in the region of Rum River. Scarlet Bird was
.iinong the slain on the Dakota side; and a son of his,
whom he had goaded into the battle by calling him a
woman, was left on the field. Many Ojibwa scalps were
taken, and all through that autumn and into the following-
winter the scalp dance was danced nightly at every
Dakota village on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers,
as far up as Lac-qui-parle.

"That was the condition of things then. Between
then and now there is a contrast. Then only a small
government saw-mill stood where now stand mammoth
mills, running hundreds of saws. Then only a soldiers'
little dwelling stood where now are the palaces of mer
chant princes. Then only the war-whoop of the savage
was heard where now, in this year of grace, 1873, a little
more than a third of a century after, is heard the voice of
praise and prayer in numerous Christian sanctuaries and
a thousand Christian households. Then it was the
gathering-place of the nude and painted war-party ; now it
is the gathering-place of the friends of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Then the dusky
forms of the Dakotas flitted by in the gloaming, bent on
deeds of blood ; now the same race is here largely repre
sented by pastors of native churches and teachers of the
white man's civilization and the religion of Christ. And
the marvelous change that has passed over this country,
converting it from the wild abode of savages into the
beautiful land of Christian habitations, is only surpassed
by the still more marvelous change that has been wrought
upon those savages themselves. The greater part of the
descendants of the Indians who once lived here are now
in Christian families, and have been gathered into Chris-

292 MARY AND I.

tian churches, having their native pastors. Some, too,
have gone beyond to the still wild portions of their own
people, and are commencing there such a work as wo
commenced, nearly forty years ago, among their fathers
here.

"But the work is now commenced among the Teetons
of the Missouri, under circumstances vastly different
from those which surrounded us in its beginning here.
Then, with an unwritten language, imperfectly under
stood and spoken stammeringly by foreigners, the Gospel
was proclaimed to unwilling listeners. Now, with the
perfect knowledge of the language learned in the wig
wam, a comparatively large company of native men and
women are engaged in publishing it. Many ears are
still unwilling to listen, ahd the hearts of the wild In
dians are only a very little opened to the good news ;
but the contrast between the past and present is very
great."

While this meeting of the American Board was in
progress, the ladies of the Woman's Boards held a
meeting, which was reported as full of interest. So
many women publishers of the Word in all parts of the
world were present that the enthusiasm and Christ-
spirit rose very high. Nina Foster Riggs, who had just
arrived from Fort Sully, the center of Dakota heathen
dom, announced her wish for a female companion in
labor there. Several young women present said, " I
will go." From these, Miss Lizzie Bishop of Northfield,
Minn., was afterward selected. Her health was not
vigorous, but she and her friends thought it might
become more so in the Missouri River climate. She at
once proceeded with T. L. Riggs and wife to Hope

MARY AND I.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 293

Station. There I met her for the first time in the first
of the June following. She impressed me as a singularly
pure-minded and devoted young woman. Two Teeton
boys in the family belonged to her especial charge. She
said she found the Lord's Prayer in Dakota too difficult
of comprehension for their use, and desired me to make
something more simple. I sat down and wrote a child's
prayer, of which this is a translation : —

"My Father, God,

Have mercy on me;
Now I will sleep ;
Watch over me :
If I die before the morning,

Take me to thyself.
For thy Son Jesus' sake, these I ask of thee."

Miss Bishop's missionary work for the Teeton Sioux was
soon over. But I will let Nina Foster Riggs tell the story :

"After the meeting of the American Board in Minne
apolis, in October, 1873, Miss Elizabeth Bishop of
Northfield, Minn., entered the Dakota work.

" Two years later, at the next western meeting of the
society, and during the session of the Woman's Board
of Missions, her death was announced. Of the interven
ing twelve months twice told, it falls to my lot to speak,
and I attempt the task with mingled feelings, for I know
it is impossible to do justice to the beauty of Lizzie's
character.

"Young, delicate, already suffering with a disease
which made her to be over-fastidious in some things,
sensitive to the discomforts of frontier life, and inexperi
enced in its ways of living, she came into the mission
work.

294 MAKY AND I.

"These hindrances were met and more than over
balanced by her singleness of purpose, her even temper,
her devotion to her chosen labor, and her unwavering
trust in Jesus.

" The first winter of her stay at Hope Station, on the
bank of the Missouri River, opposite Fort Sully, was a
winter of trial and of danger. Indians had threatened to
burn the mission house. Hostile ones crowded about the
place, the camps were noisy with singing and dancing in
preparation for war-parties, and once a shot was fired
into the house.

"None of these things disturbed Lizzie. 4I do not
choose to be killed by the Indians,' she said, * but if the
Lord wills it so, it is all right.' And she went on as
usual with her housework and her sewing-school, and the
care of the two Indian boys who were taken into the
family in the spring. While she taught the sewing-
class, several little girls, some six or eight, made dresses
of linsey-woolsey for themselves; and then, under Miss
Bishop's supervision, combed their hair, bathed, and put
on clean clothes. She also instructed several women in
some branches of housework, and was always looking for
the opportunity of doing good.

"Very early in the winter she had a slight hemorrhage
from the lungs, which was followed by others more
severe at intervals through the summer. But she still
kept up.

"In the fall, after the removal to another mission
station, her health gave way, and she was obliged to go
to the fort to rest and recuperate. After her return she
was able to resume only a part of her former work ; but
she carried on, with great enthusiasm, the morning school
for children, and aided somewhat in the sewing-school.

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 295

" Although, as the spring advanced, her health failed
more and more, yet her courage would not give way, and
she never but once expressed the opinion that she should
not recover. Her plan had been to spend this second
summer in her own home, though sometimes she was
almost ready to stay on and work for ' my boys,' as she
called them.

" Finally, she concluded to go to Minnesota for the sum
mer, but made every arrangement to return to the mission
in the fall. After some hesitation because of her delicate
health, she decided to make the journey with our mission
party overland, down the country. So she took the trip*
enjoyed every day, and declared she felt better and slept
better every night.

"The party camped out over the Sabbath, and on
Monday evening, the seventh day after leaving Fort
Sully, arrived at the Yankton agency. Here, at the
mission home of our friend J. P. Williamson, the wel
come was so warm, and the companionship so pleasant,
that Miss Bishop desired to spend a few days longer than
she had intended. She wanted to visit the schools, and
learn both here and at Santee agency something to help
her when she should go back to teach the Indian chil
dren on the Upper Missouri. So she stayed behind, full
of hope and zeal. But her friends parted from her with
foreboding in their hearts. In a few days she was again
attacked with her old trouble ; she rallied so as to get to
her home, and to be again with her mother and sister.
But she sank rapidly, and, after some weeks of severe
suffering, she entered into rest.

" Writing of her, her sister said : * Her favorite motto
was, " Simply to thy cross I cling." She trusted in Christ
because he has promised to save all who come to him.

296 MARY AND I.

She enjoyed hearing us sing to the last such hymns as,
"Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "Nearer, my God, to Thee,"
"My Faith Looks up to Thee," "Father, Whate'er of
Earthly Bliss," " How Firm a Foundation," and others.'

"Resting on Him who is able to save, she passed away.

"The work she loved, and so conscientiously carried
on, has fallen to other hands, but is not finished nor lost ;
and in the homes she helped to make happy she is missed,
yet her memory is an abiding presence, cheering and
encouraging.

" ' And a book of remembrance was written before him
for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his
name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts,
in that day when I make up my jewels.' * "
. The commencement of the Manual Labor Boarding-
School on the Sisseton reserve was an event which in
dicated progress. Agent M. N. Adams had received
authority from the department to erect a suitable build
ing. On the 4th of September, 1873, the foundation
walls were so far completed that the corner-stone was laid
with appropriate ceremonies. There was quite a gather
ing of the natives and white people on the reservation.
After prayer in Dakota by Pastor Solomon, Mr. Adams
made a speech, which was interpreted, setting forth the
advantages that would accrue to this people from .such a
school as this building contemplated. He then announced

* Mention should be made here of Rev. Samuel Ingham and his
wife, who joined the missionary force at Santee immediately after
the meeting of the Board at Minneapolis. Mr. Ingham was suffer
ing at the time from what was considered a temporary malady, but
which proved serious and ended his life Dec. 27, 1873. Mrs.
Ingham continued in her work in the "Dakota Home," the new
school for girls.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 297

that he had in his hands copies of the Bible in Dakota
and English, and a Dakota hymn book, together with
eight numbers of the lapi Oaye, a copy of the St. Paid
Press, and a Yankton paper, and also sundry docu
ments, all of which he deposited in the place prepared
for them. I added a few remarks, and then the corner
stone was laid and pronounced level. Speeches followed
from Solomon, John B., and Daniel Renville, pastors;
Miid from Robert Hopkins, Two Stars, and Gabriel Ren
ville. They accepted this as the guarantee of progress in
the new era on which they had entered.

That autumn the boarding-school was commenced.
As only a part of the building could be made habitable
for the winter, the girls alone were placed there, under
the care and teaching of Mr. and Mrs. Armor. Mr. and
Mrs. Morris took the boys and cared for them, in very
close quarters, at the mission, only a little way off. In
the summer of 1874 there appeared in the Word Car
rier articles on " Our Girls," and " Our Boys," written
by Mrs. Armor and Mrs. Morris, respectively. In each
department they had about sixteen. Mrs. Armor classed
her scholars as large girls, little girls, and very little girls.
That first year was a good beginning of the school.

Mrs. Morris was willing to undertake the hard work
these sixteen boys imposed upon her, because she had just
met with a great sorrow. She had gone on East with tico
children, and came back with only one. " As I sit and
mend," she writes, " the alarming holes which the boys
make in their clothes, an unbidden tear sometimes falls
when I think of our blue-eyed, sunny-haired boy, whose
last resting-place is in the valley of the Susquehanna.
And I think how much rather I would have worked for
him than for these boys. But I say to myself, ' My dar-

298 MARY AND I.

ling is safe and out of reach of harm ' / and these boys
need the doing for that my darling one will never need
more. For

" ' Mine in God's garden runs to and fro,
And that is best.'

And I know that somehow the Lord knows what is best ;
and he does as he will with his own."

In the early spring of 1874, I was requested jointly by
the American Board and the American Missionary Asso
ciation to visit and report upon various Indians agencies,
where their appointees, or nominees rather, were agents.
Accordingly, I started in the month of May, by St. Paul,
on the Northern Pacific Railroad, to Bismarck, and thence
by steamboat up the Missouri to Fort Berthold. At this
time Major L. B. Sperry, who had been a professor in
Ripon College, was the nominee of the American Mis
sionary Association. It was not my good fortune to find
Agent Sperry at home, but Mrs. Sperry, in a very lady
like way, gave me the best accommodations during the
week I remained.

Here were gathered the remnant of the Mandans, only
a few hundred persons, and the Rees, or Arricarees, a part
of the Pawnee tribe, and the Gros Ventres, or Mirmetaree,
properly the Hidatsa. Altogether they numbered about
two thousand souls. We had before this entertained the
desire that we might be able to establish a mission among
these people, and this thought or hope gave interest to
my visit. The Mnndan and the Hidatsa languages were
both pretty closely connected with the Dakota ; but what
seemed to bring these nearer to us was the fact that many
of all these people could understand and talk the Dakota,
that forming a kind of common language for them.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 299

Howard Mandan, or " The-man-with-a-scared-face"
as his Indian name is interpreted, was the son of Red Cow,
the principal chief of the Mandans, and had been taken
down by Gen. C. H. Howard, a year before, and
placed in A. L. Riggs' school at Santee. Howard had
returned home before my visit, and also Henry Eaton, a
Hidatsa young man, who had been East a good many
years and talked English well.

George Catlin had, many years ago, interested us in
the Mandans, by his effort to prove, from their red hair
in some cases — perhaps only redded hair — and in some
instances blue eyes, and the resemblances which he claims
to have found in their languages, that they were the de
scendants of a Welsh colony that had dropped out of
history a thousand years ago. And Dr. Washington
Matthews of the United States Army had created in us
a desire to do something for the spiritual enlightenment
of the Hidatsa, by his admirable grammar and dictionary
of their language. In his introduction to this book he
gives us much valuable information about the people.

Hidatsa, he tells us, is the name by which they call
themselves. They are better known to us by the names
Minnetaree and Gros "Ventre. This last is a name given
them by the Canadian French, and without any special
reason. It is a fact that Indians can eat large quantities
of food, but it is very rarely indeed that you will find one
whose appearance would justify the epithet gros ventre.
The other term, Minnetaree, is the name given them by
the Mandans, and means, to cross the water. The story
is that when the Hidatsa people came to the Missouri
River from the north-east, the Mandan village was on the
west side of the river. They called over, and the Man-
dans answered back in their own language : " Who are

300 MARY AND I.

you ? " The Hidatsa, not understanding it, supposed they
had asked, " What do you want ? " and so replied ; "Minne-
taree, to cross over the water"

Whence came the Hidatsa? Their legend says they
originally lived under a great body of water which lies
far to the north-east of where they now live. From this
under-water residence some persons found their way out,
and, discovering a country much better than the one in
which they lived, returned and gave to their people such
glowing accounts of their discoveries that the whole
nation determined to come out. But, owing to the break
ing of a tree on which they were climbing out of the lake,
a great part of the tribe had to remain behind in the
water, and they are there yet.

This is very much like the myth of another tribe, who
lived under the ground by a lake. A large grape-vine
sent its tap-root through the crust of the earth, and by
that they commenced to climb out. But a very fat
woman taking hold of the vine, it broke, and the remain
der were doomed to stay where they were. Do such
legends contain any reference to the great Deluge ?

After the Hidatsa came up, they commenced a series of
wanderings over the prairies. During their migrations
they were often ready to die of hunger, but were always
rescued by the interference of their deity. It was not
manna rained down around their camp, but the stones of
the prairie were miraculously changed into buffalo, which
they killed and ate. After some time they sent couriers
to the south, who came back with the news that they
had found a great river and a fertile valley, wherein
dwelt a people who lived in houses and tilled the ground.
They brought back corn and other products of the coun
try. To this beautiful and good land the tribe now

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 301

directed their march, and, guided by^ their messengers
they reached the Mandan villages on the Missouri River.
With them they camped and learned their peaceful arts,

Dr. Matthews says they have a tradition that during
these years of wandering the Genius of the Sun took up
one of the Hidatsa maidens, and their offspring came
back, and, under the name of Grand-Child, was the great
prophet and teacher of his mother's people. Can that
have any reference to the " Son of Man"?

These Indians, the Mandan s, the Hidatsa, and the Rees,
live in one village at Berthold, in all numbering some
thing over two thousand ; and they have lived together,
as we know, more than a hundred years, and yet the lan
guages are kept perfectly distinct and separate. Many
of them learn each other's language ; and many of them
talk Dakota also. "Many years ago they were consid
ered ripe for the experiments of civilization ; they stand
to-day just as fit subjects as ever for the experiment,
which never lias been, and possibly never will be, tried."
This is Dr. Matthews' statement. Let us hope that the
latter part may not be prophetic.

" They worship a deity," says Dr. Matthews, "whom
they call « The First Made ' or ' The First Existence.' "
Sometimes they speak of him as " The Old Man Immor
tal." They believe in shades or ghosts, which belong not
only to men, but to animals and trees and everything.

" In the ' next world ' human shades hunt and live on
the shades of the buffalo and other animals who have
lived here. Whether the shade of the buffalo then
ceases to exist or not, I could find none prepared to tell
me ; but they seem to have a dim faith in shades of
shades, and in shadow-lands of shade-lands ; belief in a
shadowy immortality being the basis of their creed."

302 MARY AND I.

By all these me^ns our interest in Fort Berthold and
its people grew, and we became impatient of delay. But
step by step we were led by the hand of the Lord, until
at the meeting of the American Board in Chicago in the
autumn of 1875, after an animated discussion on Indian
Missions, and the debt of the Board was lifted by a
special effort, Secretary S. B. Treat arose and said :
" We are ready to send a man to Fort Berthold." The
man and the woman, Charles L. Hall and Emma Cal-
houn, were ready, and the next spring they were com
missioned to make their home among the Mandans,
Arickarees and Hidatsa.

On leaving Berthold in May, 1874, I proceeded down
the Missouri to Bismarck, where I was subjected to con
siderable delay; and then stopping a few days with
Thomas at Hope Station, and making a short call at the
Yankton agency, I went to the San tee to attend our
annual meeting of the Dakota Conference, which com
menced its sessions with the Pilgrim Church on the 18th
of June.

A. L. Riggs had put up in large characters the motto
of the meeting — 1834-1874. Thus we were reminded
that forty years had passed since the brothers Pond had
made their log cabin on the banks of Lake Calhoun.
These gray-headed men were expected to have been
present on this occasion, but were not. T. L. Riggs and
wife could not come down. Otherwise the attendance of
whites and Indians was good. The presence of Rev.
Joseph Ward of Yankton, and of Mrs. Wood, the
mother of Mrs. Ward, and also of Rev. De Witt Clark
of Massachusetts, greatly added to the interest. The
question discussed by the native brethren with the most

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 303

eagerness was, "Shall the eldership receive any money
compensation?" This had come up to be a question
solely because such native church helpers were receiving
compensation among the Episcopalians. But our folks
decided against it by an overwhelming vote.

So full an account has been given of the like meeting
held a year previous, that this, which was in most re
spects equally interesting, may be passed over. Of the
school here during the winter past, the Word Carrier
had contained this notice : " The Normal School of the
Dakota Mission at Santee agency has had a prosperous
winter session, notwithstanding the dark days last fall,
when its doors were closed, and many of its former
pupils removed beyond the reach of earthly training by
the small-pox." The whole number of scholars for the
winter three months was eighty-five.

After this meeting closed, I spent six weeks with the
churches in my own part of the field on the Sisseton
reservation. I found the people at Ascension church,
J. B. Renville pastor, in the midst of church building.
Their log church had become too small, and they had for
a year been preparing to build a larger and better house
of worship. Mr. Adams took a great interest in this
enterprise, and helped them much by obtaining contribu
tions and otherwise. The Dakota men and women also
took hold of it as their own work, and the house went
up, and was so far finished before the winter that its
dedication took place about the middle of December.
The cost of the house was then given at $1500. Two or
three hundred more were afterward used in its internal
completion. This was a great step forward. Dakota
Christians build, with but little help, their own house of
worship !

304 MARY AND I.

About the middle of August I left Sisseton to com
plete my work of visiting Indian agencies, which I had
undertaken to do for the American Missionary Associa
tion. At St. Paul I was joined by Rev. Edward Pay-
son Wheeler, who was just from Andover Seminary.
He was the son of the missionary Wheeler who had
spent his life with the Ojibwas, at Bad River. He had
learned the language in his boyhood, and I was only too
happy to have as my companion of the journey one who
was at home among the Ojibwas.

From St. Paul we went up the Lake Superior Road
until we reached the Northern Pacific, on which we
traveled westward to Brainerd, and then took stage
seventy miles to Leech Lake. There we found white
friends arid Ojibwas, to whom we preached, Mr. Wheeler
trying the language he had not used for years. We then
proceeded by private conveyance, over a miserable road
through the pine woods, to Red Lake. Rev. Mr. Spees
and wife, who were there doing work under the Ameri
can Missionary Association, and Agent Pratt received us
kindly. My friend Wheeler talked with the Indians —
the old men remembered his father, and seemed to warm
very much toward the son. It appeared to me that
there was a grand opening for an educational work and
preaching the Gospel. When we left Red Lake, I fully
believed that E. P. Wheeler would return there as a
missionary before the snow fell. But I was disap
pointed. The American Missionary Association was
heavily in debt, and had no disposition whatever to
enlarge work among the Indians.

We then returned by the way we came, and went on
to Duluth, where we took a steamer on the Gitche
Gumme (Lake Superior) for Bayfield. On the down-

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 305

lake steamer we formed the acquaintance of Rev. John
McDougall, a Methodist minister, who, with his family,
was going to the Canadian Conference, from the far-off
country of the Saskatchawan. For more than a quarter
of a century he had been a missionary among the Crees
and Bloods and Piegans.

But what interested me most was the account he gave
of a small band of about seven hundred Indians called
Stoneys. They talk the Dakota language, and, as their
name indicates, they are evidently a branch of the Assin-
aboines.

The name Assinaboine means Stone Sioux, and is a
compound of French and Ojibwa. The last part is Bwan,
which is the name the Ojibwas give the Dakotas or
Sioux.

These Stoneys are said to be all Christians. They
have their school-house and church, and Rev. John
McDougall, son of the old gentleman, is their missionary.
They live on Bow River, which, I suppose, is a branch of
the Saskatchawan, about two hundred miles north-west
from Fort Benton, and one hundred north of the Canada
line. To us who labor among the Dakotas, it is very
cheering to know that this small outlier of the fifty
thousand Dakota-speaking people have all received the
Gospel. We clap our hands for joy.

Landing at Bayfield, we were kindly received by the
Indian agent Dr. Isaac Mali an.

Nestled among the hills, and looking out into the bay
filled with the Apostle Islands, this town has rather a
romantic position. And just out a little way, on Mag
dalen Island, is La Pointe, the old mission station.
We passed around it in a sail-boat on our way to
Odanah.

306 MARY AND I.

Very soon after reaching Bayfield, we found a boat
going over to Odanah, which, I understand, is the Ojib-
wa for town or village, and which is the name by which
the mission station on Bad River has long been known.
As I entered the boat, Mr. Wheeler introduced me to
the Ojibwa men who were to take us over. When I
shook hands with one of them, he said, " My father, Mr.
Riggs." Was he calling me his father, or was it the
Indian ? I wondered which, but asked no questions.
Two or three days after, I learned that adoption was one
of the Ojibwa customs, and that when Mr. Wheeler was
a little boy this man lost his boy. He came to the mis
sion and said to the missionary, " My boy is gone ; you
have a great many boys; let me call this one mine."
And so they said he might so call him ; and from that
time Edward Payson Wheeler became the adopted child
of an Ojibwa.

Now, after he had been gone ten years, going away a
boy and coming back a man, they all seemed to regard
him like a son and a brother. It was very interesting
for me to see how they all warmed toward him. They
came to see him, and wanted him to go to their houses.
They all wanted to talk with him ; and when we came to
leave, they all flocked to the mission to shake hands, and
to have a last word and a prayer ; and they gave him
more muckoks of manomin (wild rice) than he could
bring away with him.

For four days we were the guests of the boarding-
school which is in charge of Rev. Isaac Baird. We be
came much interested in the school and the teachers —
Mrs. Baird, Miss Harriet Newell Phillips, Miss Verbeek,
Miss Dougherty, and Miss Walker. Naturally, I should
be prejudiced in favor of the Dakotas, but I was obliged

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 307

to confess that I had not seen anywhere twenty-five boys
and girls better-looking and more manly and womanly in
their appearance than those Ojibwas. The whole com
munity gave evidence of the good work done by the
school in past years — many of the grown folks being
able to talk English quite well.

But there was one impression that came to me without
bidding — it was that civilization had been pressed farther
and faster than evangelization. While houses and other
improvements attested a great deal of labor expended,
the native church is quite small, only now numbering
about twenty-eight, and the metawa^ their sacred heathen
dance, was danced while we were there, within a stone' s-
throw of the church. My spirit was stirred within me,
and I said to the members of that native church that
they ought so to take up the work of evangelizing their
own people in good earnest that the dancing of the
metawa thus publicly would become an impossibility.

My visit to various points in the Ojibwa country has
interested me very greatly. From what I have seen and
heard, the conviction grew upon me that the whole
Ojibwa field, comprising thirteen or fourteen thousand
people in the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota, is now
open to the Gospel as it never has been before. The
old laborers sowed the good seed, but they saw little
fruit. No wonder they became discouraged. For years
the field was almost entirely given up. But, although
the servants retired, the Master watched the work, and
here and there the seed has taken root and sprung up.
This appears in the new desire prevailing that they may
again have schools and missionaries. Shall we not take
advantage of this favorable time to tell them, of Jesus the
Saviour ?

CHAPTER XX.

1875-1876. — Annual Meeting of 1875. — Homestead Settlement on
the Big Sioux. — Interest of the Conference. — lapi Oaye. —
Inception of Native Missionary Work. — Theological Class. —
The Dakota Home. — Charles L. Hall Ordained. —Dr. Magoun
of Iowa. — Mr. and Mrs. Hall Sent to Berthold by the Ameri
can Board. — The Word Carrier's Good Words to Them. —
The Conference of 1876. —In J. B. Renville's Church. — Com
ing to the Meeting from Sully. — Miss Whipple's Story. —
" Dakota Missionary Society." — Miss Collins' Story. — Im
pressions of the Meeting.

MORE and more the important events of the year cul
minate in, and are brought out by, the meeting of our
Annual Conference. Heretofore this gathering had been
in June. In the year 1875, it was held in September, at
the Homestead Settlement on the Big Sioux. Only four
years had passed since we were here before, but in this
time great changes had taken place. They had erected a
log church, and outgrown it, and sold it to the government
for a school-house, and had just completed, or nearly com
pleted, a commodious frame building. In this our meet
ings were held. Their farms and dwelling-houses had
also greatly improved. In several of these years they
had been visited by the grasshoppers, and by this visita
tion they had lost their crops. But they held on — some
what discouraged, it is true. When their prospects and
hopes from Mother Earth failed, they went to hunting,
and thus they had worked along. This year they had a
fair crop, and by exerting themselves they were able to

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 309

entertain more than a hundred Dakota guests. Besides
what they could furnish from their own farms, they had
raised about $70 in money, which they expended in
fresh beef. Thus they made princely provision for the
meeting, which was, as usual, rich and full of interest.

Our Conference meetings began on the afternoon of
Thursday, Sept. 16, and by that time we were all on the
ground and ready. We had journeyed, camping by the
way, some over from the Missouri and others down from
the head of the Coteau. The native delegates and visit
ors were encamped by the river-side, convenient to wood
and water and the place of meeting. The missionaries
pitched their tents by the house and enjoyed the hospi
tality of P. A. Vannice and his good wife.

At the time appointed we gathered at the church and
had a sermon by one of the native pastors — Louis.
Then came the business organization, followed by short
speeches of greeting and welcome. On the following day
the real work of the Conference began. Questions relat
ing to the proper training and education of children, and
the training and preparation needful for the ministry, were
discussed with interest and profit. The next day, which
was Saturday, was taken up in the discussion of two prom
inent subjects of interest — the homestead act in its rela
tion to Indians, and our Dakota paper. On the first of
these topics there was a full and healthy expression of
opinion. It was said that the plan of depending on the
government for support tended to bad. Said Ehnamane :
" If when we are hungry we cry out to our Great Father
c Give us food,' or when we are cold we say, ' Send us
clothes,' we become as little children — we are not men.
Here at this place we see that each man takes care of
himself ; he has a farm and a house, and some have a cow

310 MARY AND I.

and a few chickens. We go into their houses and we see
tables and chairs, and when they eat they spread a cloth
over the table, as do white people, and there are curtains
to the windows, and we see the women dressed like white
women — here we find men. We who look to the gov
ernment for food and clothing are not men but little chil
dren, and the longer we depend on the government the
lower down we find ourselves." Others differed : they
said one could grow into manhood anywhere supported
by the government or caring for themselves. Besides, it
would not do to be too confident. It was hard work to
strike out alone ; some had starved, some had been frozen
to death, and others had turned back. It means work to
become a self-supporting citizen.

Perhaps there was as much real feeling expressed when
the lapi Oaye was discussed as at any other time during
Conference. Last year it was hoped that by another year
the paper would become self-sustaining. Owing to sev
eral reasons, however, the subscription receipts for the
past year are very much smaller than for the year previous,
necessitating the meeting of a considerable deficiency by
the missionaries themselves. It was thought best for
our native membership to know the facts in order to
stimulate action, lest we be obliged to discontinue the
paper. However, they would listen to nothing of that
kind.

The paper has so strong a hold on the people as to be
almost a necessity, and thereby a means of great and
growing good. Sabbath morning was devoted to com
munion services, and the 113 native delegates and visitors
from other stations united with their brothers at Flandreau
around the table of our Lord.

In the afternoon we had a grand missionary meeting,

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 311

which was the closing of the Conference. Speeches were
made by the fathers in the mission and by the older na
tive membership, contrasting the darkness of the past
with the light of the present. It seemed, as we listened
to the words of joy and thanksgiving spoken by those who
have come up from heathenism, that the cup of joy and
gladness must be full to overflowing for the fathers of
our mission, who went through the great trials and dan
gers of early days, and who are permitted to look upon
the wonderful success of their lives spent thus in the
Master's service.

The last topic discussed had somewhat of a history.
Some time during the year before, it had been published
that the American Board had great-grandchildren. The
mission to the Sandwich Islands had commenced Christian
work on the Marquesas, and they again had extended it
to other islands. In an article which Dr. Williamson
furnished to the lapi Oaye, under the heading of " Chil
dren and Grandchildren," he recited these facts. A
month or two afterward, I wrote an article on the " Chil
dren of Grandchildren," in which I said I was thankful
for children, but wanted grandchildren.

These statements worked like leaven in some of the
natives' minds. David Gray Cloud, who opened the sub
ject of missionary work to be undertaken by the native
churches, had been stimulated thereby. The whole
assembly seemed to be ready to take the first steps in
the organization of a native Foreign Mission Society.
A committee was appointed for that object, consisting
of J. P. Williamson, A. L. Riggs, John B. Renville,
Robert Hopkins, and Iron Track. In the meantime, the
churches were exhorted to take up collections for the
Foreign Mission Fund.

312 MARY AND I.

In the beginning of the year 1876, at the Santee
agency, in connection with the mission training school,
a theological class was organized.

For a few years past we have been realizing more and
more the want of a higher education in our native pas
tors and preachers. To supply this defect, and prepare
the young men who are coming up to the work to fill the
places of the fathers with a higher grade of scholarship,
and especially with a more thorough knowledge and ap
preciation of Bible truth, this plan was undertaken. It
is only a beginning.

The regular class consisted of John Eastman, Eli Abra
ham, Albert Frazier, Henry Tawa, Peter Eyoodooze, and
Solomon Chante, with Rev. Artemas Ehnamarie, the pas
tor of the Santee church. Some others have been in
attendance on evening exercises.

The object has been to give them as much knowledge
and training as could be imparted and received in the
limited space of four weeks, in Bible geography and his
tory, in the main doctrines of the Christian faith, in the
best methods of teaching Bible truth, the founding and
growth of the Christian Church, in its orders of laborers,
in its ordinances, in its service, and in its benevolent and
saving work.

For the first two weeks of the term A. L. Riggs was
assisted by Rev. J. P. Williamson, from the Yankton
agency, wrhich is the home of three of the young men
attending the class.

I had received an urgent invitation to come on from
Beloit to aid in the instructions of the last two weeks,
which I quite willingly accepted. While at the Santee
on this visit, I became better acquainted with the work
ing of the normal school, and especially of that part of it

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 313

called the " Dakota Home." The following is A. L. Riggs'
description of it : —

" The Dakota Home is one of a group of buildings for
educational purposes belonging to the Dakota Mission, at
their principal educational center, Santee agency, Ne
braska. It was built by the funds of the Woman's Board
of Missions, at a cost of about $4200. It was commenced
in 1872, but not completely finished until 1874, although
it has been in use from the first.

" It is a large, well proportioned frame-building, two
stories high, and forty-two by forty-eight feet on the
ground. On the first floor is the teachers' suite of rooms,
the large dining-hall, which is also sewing and sitting-
room for the girls, the Home kitchen, and the necessary
pantries and closets. Underneath is the commodious
cellar and milk-room.

"In the second story are the dormitories. There are
ten sleeping-rooms and a bath-room. Each room is in
tended to be occupied by only two girls, though three of
them can accommodate four, if necessary. Every sleep
ing-room is automatically and thoroughly ventilated with
out opening a door or window."

The object of the Dakota Home is to train up house
keepers for the future Dakota homes. Hence our effort
is to train them into the knowledge and habit of all home
work, and to instil in them the principles of right action,
and cultivate self-discipline.

They learn to cook and wash, sew and cut garments,
weave, knit, milk, make butter, make beds, sweep floors,
and anything else pertaining to housekeeping, and they
can make good bread.

At this time the Home was in the charge of Miss Marie

314 MARY AND I.

L. Haines — since become Mrs. Joseph Steer — and Miss
Anna Skea."

Before I left the Santee, to return to my home in Beloit,
the ordination of Mr. Charles L. Hall was announced to
take place at Yankton on the 22d of February, and I was
sorry I could not remain and take part. The marriage
of Mr. Hall and Miss Calhoun was consummated at the
Yankton agency a week previous to this time.

For the ordination the Congregational churches of
Yankton and Springfield had united in calling the coun
cil. The call included the neighboring Congregational
churches and three of our native churches. The Santee
Agency church was represented by Pastor Artemas Ehna-
mane and Deacon Robert Swift Deer. The council con
vened in Mr. Ward's church. The venerable Rev. Charles
Seccombe of Nebraska was moderator, and Rev. A. D.
Adams of Sioux Falls was scribe.

The sermon was preached by Rev. Geo. F. Magoun,
D.D., of Iowa College, and his theme was "The Chris
tian Ambassadorship." It was said to be a sermon worthy
of the occasion and the preacher. It was eminently fit
ting that Dr. Magoun should preach the sermon on the
sending off of this new mission. For among those who
bore such effective testimony in behalf of Indian missions,
on the platform of the American Board in Chicago was
President Magoun. The ordaining prayer was made by
Rev. John P. Williamson ; the charge was given by Rev.
Joseph Ward, and the right hand of fellowship by Rev.
A. L. Riggs.

Thus Mr. and Mrs. Hall were set apart, and sent off to
plant the standard of the cross at Fort Berthold, among
the Mandans and Rees and Hidatsa, at a point on the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 315

Missouri fifteen hundred miles above its mouth. The
Word Carrier for April, 1876, gave them the right
hand of fellowship. It said : " They must be a part of us.
'They will, in fact, form a part of the Dakota Mission.
We will work with them, by our prayers and sympathies
and Dakota books and native help, so far as they can use
them." It said to them : " Go and plant the standard of
the cross at Berthold, and ' Hold the Fort ' for the Mas
ter. You have the old promise, ' Lo ! I am with you all
days.' It is ever new, and ever inspiring. And yet
there may be dark days and lonesome nights perhaps.
You will have to learn the way into dark human hearts,
which must be done ' by the patience of hope, and the
labor of love.' You will tell them, in the heart's lan
guage, of that strange love of the Great Father, who
sent his Son to seek and save the lost. You will entreat
the Holy Spirit to beget in the Hidatsa and Ree and
Mandan people a soul-hunger that can only be satisfied
with the Bread and the Water of Life. And may the
good Lord keep you evermore, and give you showers of
blessing."

According to previous announcement in the Word Car
rier, the fifth annual meeting of the Dakota Mission and
Conference of the native churches commenced its ses
sions on the afternoon of September 7, 1876, in the new
and beautiful Church of Ascension, J. B. Renville pastor.
The house was crowded. The delegations and visitors
from Yankton, Santee, Flandreau, and Brown Earth
amounted to one hundred and six.

The convention was opened with prayer and singing,
Rev. A. L. Riggs and Rev. David Gray Cloud, English
and Dakota secretaries, presiding. A new Dakota hymn
of welcome was sung by the choir and church, when words

316 MARY AND I.

of welcome were spoken by Pastor J. B. Renville, and by
agent J. G. Hamilton of the Sisseton agency, and by
S. R. Riggs. These were responded to by J. P. William
son, for the Yanktons ; by Rev. Artemas Ehnamane, for
the Santees ; and by Rev. John Eastman, for the large
delegation from the Big Sioux.

The Conference then proceeded to make out the roll
and perfect its organization. All the native pastors were
present, with elders, and deacons, and teachers, and mes
sengers from the churches, numbering together fifty-nine,
and missionaries eleven. T. L. Riggs and David Gray
Cloud were chosen secretaries for the next two years.
The Conference then listened to an address on family
worship from Dr. T. S. Williamson.

From the speeches of welcome and the responses it
was manifest that for months the convention has been
looked forward to with great interest ; all parties have
come up to the meeting with joyful expectations. Major
J. G. Hamilton, the representative of the government on
this reserve, has made liberal arrangements to feed all the
Dakota visitors, for which he has our thanks in advance.

Rev. A. D. Adams, pastor of the Congregational church
at Sioux Falls, we are glad to welcome to our hospital
ities and discussions.

Although for the greater part of the time we were
together the clouds were over us, and sometimes envel
oped us, all the services were very largely attended ; and
on Sabbath the crowd was so great that we were obliged
to hold our morning service out-of-doors. The subjects
brought before the Conference for discussion were of
vital practical interest, and were entered into with enthu
siasm by the native speakers, and the action taken upon
them was usually very satisfactory.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 317

While our meetings were in progress, there came a
message to us from the white man's country, asking that
our Dakota churches unite with white Christians all along
the western border in a Prayer League against the
grasshoppers. While Sitting Bull and the hostile Da
kotas are fighting with the white soldiers in one part of
the country, and, it may be, by the cruelties of one side
or both, bringing upon us this scourge from the hand of
God, it is eminently fitting that the praying Dakotas and
the praying white people should together humble them
selves before him. So said the Dakotas.

It will give variety and interest to the circumstances
and proceedings of this meeting to have them recounted
by others.

" The morning of September 1 found the missionaries
of Bogue Station, near Fort Sully, on their way to the
annual meeting of the Dakota Mission. The party con
sisted of five — Mr. and Mrs. Riggs, Misses Collins and
Whipple, and little Theodore. The carriage was heavily
loaded with articles needed for the overland journey, con
sisting of tent, tent-poles and pins, axe, gun, stove, cook
ing-utensils, provision-boxes, traveling-bags, blankets, and
robes.

" A number of the Indians had promised to accompany
them, but the coming council of the commissioners
proved a greater attraction than the gathering together
of their Christian brethren, and they remained at home.

" The day was cool but pleasant, and all enjoyed the
ride, which gave them keen appetites for the dinner taken
on the bank of the Huhboju. In the afternoon Mr. Riggs
shot some ducks, while others gathered willows to carry

318 MARY AND I.

along for the night's fire, as at that camping-place there
was no wood.

"The second day proved to be the most eventful of
the trip. A village of prairie-dogs was passed, a rabbit
chased, and an antelope seen. But the great event was
the tip over — not an ordinary upset, but a complete rev
olution of the carriage. The large grasses grew so
thickly across the track that a deep rut was concealed
from view ; and had it been thought necessary to drive
from the track, the bluff on one side and a water hole on
the other would have prevented.

" The upper part of the carriage was too heavy to keep
its balance when the wheels went into the rut, and the
whole outfit was precipitated six feet down the bank into
the water hole, which, fortunately, was dry. Mrs. Riggs
slipped from her seat and was held down by the provis
ions, boxes, and blankets, which fell upon her when the
carriage passed over. Mr. Riggs found himself upon the
axle-tree. Miss Collins gave a faint * Oh, ohf and said,
4 Don't hurt the baby.' The baby was the safest of all.
He was nearly asleep on Miss Whipple's arm, and was
there held while she went through a series of circus per
forming hitherto unknown. When all were safely out,
and it was known that no one was seriously injured, ex
clamations of joy and thankfulness were uttered.

" Mr. Riggs started in pursuit of the team, which had
become detached from the carriage by the breaking of a
bolt, and, frightened by the confusion, had run away.
They were easily caught, as one ran faster than the other
and thus running went in a circle. Miss Collins com
menced searching for the whiffle-tree and found it nearly
a half-mile away.

" The boxes, bags, blankets, etc., were taken out, the

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 319

carriage drawn into the road, and the bows of the
top mended by means of a tent-pin and a strap. The
broken bolt was replaced by a lariat and picket-pin,
and the dash-board found a place in the feed-box in
the rear. Other things were arranged in their respective
places, the team hitched to the conveyance, and in a little
more than an hour from the time of stopping they were
again journeying onward. Mr. and Mrs. Riggs and Miss
Collins had a few bruises, the other two not a scratch of
which to boast.

" At noon they lunched under the trees beside a dry
lake-bed. All the water they had they brought with
them in a canteen.

" The head of Snake Creek was the next place where
water could be found, and this place they hoped to reach
by six o'clock. But the road was long and the horses
weary. It was eight o'clock when the creek was reached,
and then it was found to be dry. There was nothing
to be done but to drive ten miles farther, where there
were both wood and water.

"Little Theodore seemed to realize that all was not
quite right, and, knowing his bed-time, was passed asked
his mamma to sing. Then he said, ' Mamma, keep still
while I pray.' Folding his hands, he lisped in sweet baby
accents, — ' Dear Father in heaven, take care of little
Theodore, Grandma and Grandpa, Papa and Mamma,
Aunt May and Miss Whipple, for Jesus' sake. Amen.'
Then he settled down in the seat to sleep. Happy, trust
ing child ! He that careth for sparrows would not fail to
hear the prayer of the little two-year-old who had ex
pressed the thought of each heart. It was nearly mid
night when supper was over and camp work done.

" All were thankful that the next day was the Day of
Rest — the horses not less than the people.

320 MARY AND I.

'•The Sabbath was bright and beautiful, and, though
nearly a hundred miles from any habitation, they felt
they were not alone, but that the God who is worshiped
in temples not made by hands was with them through
all the pleasant hours of the holy day.

" Old Sol now concluded to veil his face awhile, and
Monday morning was ushered in by a heavy rain.
About nine o'clock the clouds broke away and prepara
tions were made to start. Before these were completed
the rain again commenced falling. They, however, did
not tarry, but rode ten miles in the moist atmosphere,
which took the starch out of the ladies' sun-bonnets, wet
the robes and bedding, but did not dampen the spirits of
the party.

" Then they decided to wait until the storm abated.
Pitched the tent in the rain and remained there until the
next morning, when the journey was resumed, though the
rain-drops were still falling.

"Wednesday forenoon they saw an Indian house
and met four Indians, — the first house passed and
the first persons seen since Bogue Station was left.

"That evening, just at dusk, the Jim River was
forded, and that night spent on its bank in fighting
mosquitoes.

" Thursday they ascended the Coteau Range and made
a call at Fort Wadsworth. Two hundred miles had been
traveled, and they had now arrived at the first settle
ment. A few miles on their camp was made, and early
the next morning they started, hoping to reach Good
Will in time for dinner. Good Will was reached, but
no person could be found. Bolted doors prevented
nn entrance, and now they must go eight miles to
Ascension church, where the Conference was in session.

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 321

" After riding up and down the many hills over which
the road runs, they stopped at an Indian house to inquire
the way. Out rushed a multitude of men and women.
One old lady, a mother in Israel, came hurrying along
on her staff, saying, 'That's Thomas, that's Thomas.'
They all shook hands, and expressed their joy because
of the safe arrival. The thought came, 'It is worth all
the trouble of a journey across the wide prairie to see so
many Christian Indians.'

"A little farther on the old church, now used for a
school building, was reached and found to be occupied
by most of the missionaries who were attending the
meeting. They kindly welcomed the weary travelers
who had come so far from the wild Teeton band, and
took them in and warmed and fed them.

"But the subject which pre-eminently engaged the at
tention of the Conference on this occasion, and drew
from our native pastors and laymen enthusiastic words,
was that of carrying the Gospel to the regions beyond."

T. L. Riggs has written the following account of the
formation of a native

DAKOTA MISSIONARY SOCIETY I

" A year since steps were taken at our Ptaya Owo-
hdaka gathering for the formation of a Native Mission
ary Society. The question was: 'Are not the native
Christians ready and able to support a special agency
for the spread of the Gospel among the still heathen
Dakotas? A committee was appointed to canvass the
matter and report at the next Annual Conference. At
this meeting, which has just- adjourned, the missionary
committee reported over $240 cash in hand, and recom-

322 MARY AND I.

mended that : (1) a Missionary Board of three members
— one the secretary, another treasurer — be elected;
and (2) a full discussion and expression of opinion
on the part of the Conference. This discussion was
earnest, and showed an understanding of the subject,
and a readiness to grapple with its difficulties, that was
very gratifying. The missionary board was carefully
chosen and instructed to select a fit man and send him
out at once. After some consideration, David Gray
Cloud, pastor of the Ma-ya-san church, was chosen by
the Board. His acceptance being received, the Sabbath
afternoon service was mainly devoted to his special set
ting apart for the new work.

" This is the first effort of the kind. Heretofore our
own missionary boards have fathered every such at
tempt. The support of native workers has come in
part or entirely from white people. Now in this new
attempt all this is changed. The native Christians send
and support their own man. We thank God that they
are ready to do this.

"The new missionary will have for his special field the
Standing Rock agency, though during the colder winter
months he will probably spend the most of his time in
the neighborhood of Fort Sully and Cheyenne agency.
To those in official position, as well as all others whom he
may meet, we commend him for the work's sake and the
Master's."

MISS MARY c. COLLINS' STORY.

" We had just come from a region where they are still
abiding in the shadow of death, and where they are just
beginning to learn that they may have life and have it
more abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ. No

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX.

wonder that when I saw so many rejoicing in his love I
felt like exclaiming, ' God has said, Let there be Light,'
and all the powers of earth can not withhold it, for
God's time is at hand. Could all the Christians in our
land have beheld with me such a multitude partaking of
the Lord's supper and obeying that loving command,
* This do in remembrance of me,' their hearts would,
I think, have been filled with thanksgiving, and a long
and earnest shout of ' Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men,' would have re
sounded through the land.

" They have the spirit of Christ, and are not satisfied
with being saved themselves only, but desire the salva
tion of their benighted brethren. They have organized
a missionary association and raised in one year about
two hundred and fifty dollars to support a mission
ary. He is sent forth from this meeting, and how it
must have rejoiced the hearts of those good men who
have grown gray in the service, to see this young man
arising from the degradation of his forefathers, standing
on the Christian platform, receiving the blessings of
his people, and pledging himself faithfully to perform
his work toward them and to his God. They must
have had feelings akin to those of Simeon when he
beheld the Saviour, 'For mine eyes have seen thy
salvation.' When I saw the work these women had
done to help sustain their paper, again I was amazed.
Twenty dollars' worth of fancy work was sold, and the
women had done it all themselves. Well may we say,
4 They have done what they could.' They only have
one paper, the Word Carrier and it was about to fail
for want of means to carry it on, and these women, with a
truly Christian spirit, went to work to sustain this im-

324 MARY AND I.

portant disseminator of truth. That was far more for
them to give than for our Christians at home to subscribe
for the paper and make it self-supporting. On Sabbath
there was not room in their large church to hold the
people, and we were obliged to hold services in the
open air, and seven or eight hundred Dakotas were
present to hear God's message to them. And to me it
seemed the most beautiful sight I ever beheld. There
were several admitted into the church, and one girl
who was about sixteen years old, who was baptized in
infancy, now in youth comes out on the Lord's side.
A little boy about twelve years old was baptized, and
I thought of many of the little boys at home, even
older than that, who had not accepted the Saviour, and,
although they have so many blessings, yet he hath
chosen the good part which shall not be taken away
from him.

"I think the angels in heaven rejoiced when these
people lifted up their hearts and voices in praise to Him.
And as the old missionary hymn rang out on the air, I
thought it seemed even grander than ever before."

CHAPTER XXI.

1871-1877. —The Wilder Sioux. —Gradual Openings. — Thomas
Lawrence. — Visit to the Land of the Teetons. — Fort Sully.

— Hope Station. — Mrs. General Stanley in the Evangelist. —
Work by Native Teachers. — Thomas Married to Nina Foster.

— Nina's First Visit to Sully. — Attending the Conference and
American Board. — Miss Collins and Miss Whipple. — Bogue
Station. — The Mission Surroundings. — Chapel Built. — Mis
sion Work. — Church Organized. — Sioux War of 1876. —
Community Excited. — Schools. — "Waiting for a Boat." —
Miss Whipple Dies at Chicago. — Mrs. Nina Riggs' Tribute.

— The Conference of 1877 at Sully. — Questions Discussed. —
Grand Impressions.

WE had been long thinking of and looking toward
the wilder part of the Sioux nation, living on and west
of the Missouri River. More than thirty years before
this, in company with Mr. Alex. G. Husrgins, I had made
a trip over from Lac-qui-parle to Fort Pierre. The
object of that visit was to inform ourselves in regard to
the Teetons — their numbers and condition, and whether
we ought then to commence mission work among them.
And since the Santees were brought to the Missouri we
had made several preaching tours up the river, stopping
awhile with the Brules at Crow Creek, and with the Min-
nekanjoos, the Oohenonpa, the Ogallala, and the Itazipcho
of the Cheyenne and Standing Rock agencies. The
bringing of our Christianized people into proximity with
the wild part of the nation seemed to indicate God's pur
pose of carrying the Gospel to them also.

325

326 MAKY AND I.

The field was evidently now open, and waiting for the
sower of the precious seed of the Word. There was no
audible cry of " Come over and help us," nor was there
in the case of Paul with the Macedonian. But there was
the same unrest, the same agony, the same reaching out
after a knowledge of God, now as then. We listened to
it, and assuredly gathered that the Lord would have us
work among the Teetons.

Thomas Lawrence was Mary's second boy. He could
hardly be reconciled with the idea that his mother should
go away to the spirit land, while he was down in Missis
sippi teaching the freedmen. Now he had been two
years in Chicago Theological Seminary, and was asking
what he should do when the other year was finished.
The Prudential Committee of the American Board were
looking around for some one to send to the Upper Mis
souri. Thomas had been born and brought up, in good
part, in the land of the Dakotas ; but they deemed it
only fair that he should now with a man's eyes see the
field, and with a man's heart better understand the
work before committing himself to it. And so, in his
summer vacation of 1871, they said to him, " Go with
your father to the land of the Teetons, and see whether
you can find your life-work with them."

We came to the land of the Teetons, and stopped for
five or six weeks at Fort Sully, which was in the neigh
borhood of Cheyenne agency. There we found Chaplain
G. D. Crocker, who had been much interested in our work
among the Dakotas when stationed at Fort Wadsworth.
We found also good and true Christian friends in Captain
Irvine and his wife, and in the noble Mrs. General Stan
ley, the wife of the commandant of the post. In the
mornings of our stay in the garrison, we often gathered

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 327

buffalo berries — mashtinpoota, rabbit noses, as the Ind
ians called them. During the day we talked with the
Dakotas, and studied the Teeton dialect, and also the
Assinaboine and the Ree. In our judgment, the time had
fully come for us to commence evangelistic work in this
part of the nation. Our friends at Sully thought so, and
the prudential committee did not hesitate a moment.
Indeed, they could not wait for Thomas to finish his
seminary course, but sent him off in midwinter to Fort
Sully. He was ordained by a council which met in
Beloit.

The Indians of the Cheyenne agency, a portion of
them, were distributed along down in the Missouri bot
tom in little villages and clusters of houses. In a vil
lage of this kind, a little below the fort, and on the
opposite side of the river, T. L. Riggs erected his first
house. It was a hewed log cabin, with two rooms
below, one of which was a school-room. The garret was
arranged for sleeping apartments. This was called Hope
Station, so named by Captain Irvine's little daughter,
who about this time came into the Christian hope.

Of this new enterprise, Mrs. Gen. D. S. Stanley sent a
very pleasant notice to the New York Evangelist. " Six
years ago," she says, " my lot was cast among the Sioux,
or Dakota Indians, who inhabit the region bordering on
the Missouri River, 500 miles above Sioux City, Iowa,
and in the vicinity of Fort Sully, Dakota Territory. All
this time it has been a matter of surprise to me that no
Christian missionary was laboring among these heathens,
while so many were sent to foreign lands. In reply to n
suggestion to this effect, made to the American Board, it
was stated that it is almost impossible to induce a compe
tent person to undertake so difficult and dangerous a task.

328 MAEY AND 1.

" Meanwhile God was preparing the way. A boy had
grown up among the Dakotas, speaking their language,
understanding their customs, and identifying himself with
their best interests. He was at this time in college pre
paring for the ministry, and last spring this young man,
Rev. T. L. Riggs, son of the veteran missionary and Da
kota scholar of that name, came to this place, and entered
upon the work for which he seemed to be so peculiarly
fitted. Almost unassisted, except by a brother, and some
facilities for work afforded by the commandant of Fort
Sully, he has erected two log buildings, and already
schools are in operation on both sides of the river, attended
by about sixty Indians, of various ages. Two native
teachers were employed during the summer, and two are
engaged for the winter. Mr. Riggs has surmounted great
difficulties, inseparable from such efforts in remote and
unsettled regions ; but he is full of energy, and his heart
is in the work."

From the beginning, it has been the aim at this station
to do the work of education very much by means of
native teachers. The first summer, a young man from
the Yankton agency, Toonwan-ojanjan by name, was
employed, and also Louis Mazawakinyanna, from Sisse-
ton. The next autumn, James Red Wing and his wife
Martha, and Blue Feather (Suntoto), were brought up
from the Santees. Red Wing's wife taught the women
in letters and the family arts, while the men taught the
young men and children generally, and greatly aided in
the religious teachings of the Sabbath. Afterward,
Dowanmane, another Santee man, was employed in like
manner. This was the commencement of educational
and Christian work in this Teeton field.

At another point, some few miles below Hope Station,

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 329

on the same side of the river, was another Dakota vil
lage, where Thomas immediately commenced holding a
preaching service, and has kept up a school. It is one of
his out stations, and called Chan tier, from the name of
the creek and bottom. While the opportunities for edu
cation and the new teaching were looked upon favora
bly, and gladly received by many, there were not want
ing those who were savagely opposed. At different
times, while Henry M. Riggs, who spent several years
aiding in the erection of buildings and other general
work, was present with Thomas at Hope Station, their
house and tent were fired upon by Indians, and residence
there seemed hardly safe.

When he had thus started the work, leaving it to be
cared for and carried on by Henry M. Riggs and Edmund
Cooley and the native teachers, Thomas went down to
the States to consummate a marriage engagement with
Cornelia Margaret Foster (known as Nina Foster), daugh
ter of Hon. John B. Foster of Bangor, Me. It was
winter, and not considered advisable for Mrs. Riggs to
return with her husband to his home among the Teetons.
She made a visit with her sister, Mrs. C. H. Howard, at
Glencoe, in the vicinity of Chicago, and in the spring
month of May I accompanied her up the Missouri. We
had a particularly long voyage of eleven days, on the
Katie Koontz, between the Santee agency and Fort
Sully; so long that we picked up Thomas on the way,
coming to meet us in his little skiff.

Thomas and Nina returned to Sully after our mis
sion meeting at the Yankton agency, and then, in
September, went to the meeting of the board at Minne
apolis.

Sully was a far-off station. There were many reasons

330 MARY AND I.

why a white woman should not be there alone. Miss
Lizzie Bishop's election to go back with them, together
with her beautiful life and early death, have been detailed
in a preceding chapter.

She had fallen out of the working ranks, but others
were ready to step to the front. In the previous spring,
Secretary Treat had told me that there were two young
ladies in Iowa who were anxious to engage in mission
work. They preferred to go to the Indians, as they de
sired to labor together. It was a David and Jonathan
love that existed between Miss Mary C. Collins and Miss
J. Emmaretta Whipple. They were immediately sent
out by the Woman's Board of the Interior to labor at
Bogue Station.

This place, selected in 1873, had for various reasons
become in 1874 the home station — thenceforward Hope
was only an out-station. Bogue Station is on Peoria
bottom, about fifteen miles below Fort Sully, and on the
same side of the Missouri, called by the Indians " Tee-
tanka-ohe," meaning "The place of a large house," so
called from a house built years ago by an Indian. Gen
eral Harney selected this bottom as the place for an
agency, or rather, perhaps, where a scheme of civilization
should be tried, and built upon it several log houses,
which became the dwellings of Yellow Hawk and his
people. The bottom has several advantages — consider
able cottonwood timber, plenty of grass for hay, and as
good land for cultivation as there is in this often " dry
and thirsty land." *

The first winter Oyemaza, or James Red Wing, and his
wife lived here with Henry M. Riggs, and taught a school.
The second winter Thomas and Nina, with Miss Bishop^

* Now named Oahe.

FOKTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 331

made it their abode. So that it was not quite a new
place to which Miss Collins and Miss Whipple came, and
yet new enough. The mission dwelling is made of logs
— one series of logs joined to another, so as to make four
rooms below, one of which has served as a school-room
through the week and a chapel for the Sabbath. Addi
tions have been made in the rear. The school-room has
for a long time back overflowed on the Sabbath, and the
women and children have been packed into the room
adjoining, which is the family room. Hence a great and
growing want of this station has been a chapel and larger
school-room. The name of Bogue was given to the sta
tion for Mrs. Mary S. Bogue, a special friend of Thomas
while he was in the seminary, who has gone to her rest.
It was at one time expected that Mr. Bogue would fur
nish the means to erect a chapel ; but the shrinkage in
values and financial losses made him a broken reed. And
so the desired building has been postponed from year to
year. But a small contribution of fourteen cents, made
by little Bertie Howard, was the nucleus around which
larger contributions gathered, chiefly from Nina's native
Bangor. About $400 of special contributions were thus
received, and the prudential committee made a loan,
which was afterward made a gift, of $500 toward it. The
building is going up — August, 1877 — a neat and sub
stantial frame, the material of which was brought up
from Yankton by boat. It is forty by twenty feet, and
will have a bell-tower in one corner.

Let me now go back and take up the threads of the
narrative which were dropped two years ago. The two
young ladies who desired to work together in some Indian
field found themselves here in Yellow Hawk's village.

332

MARY AND I.

They entered into the labors of those who had been here
longer. They grew into the work. The day schools in
books and sewing, together with the night school, em
ployed all hands, during the winter especially. A number
have learned to read and write in their own lano-uao-e.

O O

Besides the school carried on at the home station, the two
out stations have been occupied by native helpers. Edwin
Phelps, from the Sisseton agency, with his mother, Eliz
abeth Winyan, have been valuable assistants for two
winters past. Also for the winter of 1876-7, David Gray
Cloud, one of the native pastors at the head of the Coteau,
did valuable service both in teaching and preaching.
He was sent to Standing Rock by the native missionary
society, but, not being able to get a footing there, he
came down here to preach to these Teetons salvation by
Jesus Christ. In the spring, when he was leaving for
Sisseton, they begged him to stay, or at least to promise
to come back again.

The Word, during these years, has not been preached
in vain. While in the main it has been seed-sowing, —
only seed-sowing — breaking up the wild prairie-land of
these wild Dakota hearts, and planting a seed here and
there, which grows, producing some good fruit, but in
most cases not yet the best fruit of a pure and holy life,
— still, in the summer of 1876, one young man, the first
fruits among the Teetons, David Lee (Upijate) by name,
came out as a disciple of Jesus. This was the signal for
the organization of a church at this station, which was
effected in August. Another native convert, the brother
of the first, was added in the autumn following; and still
more a year or so afterward.

For two winters past, several boys and young men, who
have made a good commencement in education in these

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 333

schools, have been sent down to enjoy the advantages of
A. L. Riggs' High School at Santee. The Sioux war of
the summer of 1876 produced a great excitement at all
the agencies on the Upper Missouri. The Indians in
these villages were more or less intimately connected
with the hostiles. Many of those accustomed to receive
rations here were during the summer out on the plains.
Some of them were in the Custer fight. They say that
Sitting Bull's camp was not large — only about two
hundred lodges. The victory they gained was not, as
the whites claimed, owing to the overwhelming number
of the Dakotas, but to the exhausted condition of
Ouster's men and horses, and to their adventuring them
selves into a gorge where they could easily be cut off.

When the autumn came, the victories of the Sioux had
been turned into a general defeat. Many of them, as
they claim, had been opposed to the war all along. The
attacks, they say, were all made by the white soldiers.
They — these Dakota men — were anxious to have peace,
and used all their influence to abate the war spirit among
the more excited young men. This made it possible for
the military to carry out the order to dismount and
disarm the Sioux. But in doing this all were treated
alike as foes. Such men as Long Mandan complain
bitterly of this injustice. From him and his connections
the military took sixty-two horses. He cannot see the
righteousness of it.

As a matter of course, this excited state of the com
munity was unfavorable, in some respects, to missionary
work during the winter. The military control attempted
to interfere with the sending away of Teeton young men
to the Santee school. But on the whole no year of
work has proved more profitable. In all the schools,

334 MARY AND I.

Thomas reported about two hundred and forty scholars.
They were necessarily irregular in attendance, as they
were frequently ordered up to the agency to be counted.
Still, the willing hearts and hands had work to do all the
time. And so the spring of 1877 came, when the women
folks of Bogue Station had all planned to have a little
rest. Mrs. Nina Riggs was to go as far as Chicago to
meet her father and mother from Bangor. Miss Collins
and Miss Whipple were going to visit their friends in
Iowa and Wisconsin. And so they all prepared for the
journey and waited for a boat. By some mischance
boats slid by them. They put their tent on the river-
bank and waited. So a whole month had passed, when,
at last, their patient waiting was rewarded, and they
passed down the Missouri River and on to Chicago.

The ladies of the Woman's Board of the Interior had
arranged to have them present and take an active part
in several public meetings in and around Chicago. This
was unwise for the toilers among the Dakotas. The
excitement of waiting and travel — the summer season —
the strain on the nervous system incident to speaking
in public, to those unaccustomed to it — all these were
unfavorable to the rest they needed. We must not
(juarrel with the Lord's plan, but we may object to the
human unwisdom. So it was; before Miss Whipple had
visited her friends she was stricken down with fever.
Loving hearts and willing hands could not stay its
progress. It is said, and we do not doubt it, that all
was done for her recovery that kind and anxious friends
could do. Miss Collins, her special friend, did not leave
her. Delirium came on, and she was waiting for the
boat. It was not now a Missouri steamer, but the boat
that angels bring across from the Land of Life. She saw

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 335

it coming. " The boat has come and I must step in,"
she said. And so she did, and passed over to the farther
shore of the river.

The Teetons say, " Two young women went away, and
one of them is not coming back. They say she has gone
to the land of spirits. It has been so before. Miss
Bishop went away, and we did not see her again. And
now we shall not see Miss Whipple any more." So they
mourn with us. But, while the workers fall, their work
willnot fail. It is the work for which Christ came from the
bosom of the Father ; and, as he lives now, so he " shall
see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.5 '

Dear Miss Whipple's death came upon us like a
thunder-clap. We are dumb, because the Lord has done
it. Nevertheless, it has made our hearts very sad and
interfered with our plans of work. But we can say,
" Not in our way, but in Thy way, shall the work be
done." A fitting tribute from Mrs. Nina Riggs will be
found very interesting.

" Miss J. E. Whipple died of gastric fever at Chicago,
August 11, aged 24. For nearly two years she had
been connected with the Dakota Mission among the
Teeton Indians. And she left her work there last
spring, in order to take a short vacation and visit among
her friends. On her way from her sister's home in
Knoxville, 111., to the home of her father at Badger,
Wis., she was attacked by the disease which proved
fatal. Through all her sickness to the end, she was
tenderly and lovingly cared for by Miss Mary Collins,
her intimate friend and companion in missionary labor.
In the summer of 1875, Miss Whipple gave herself to
the cause of missions, and entered upon her work in the

336 MARY AND T.

autumn of that same year. She had little idea of what
she should be called to do, but self-consecration was the
beginning of all, and so, whatever work was given her
to do, she took it up cheerfully and earnestly, yielding
time and strength and zeal to it. Though it seemed small,
she did not scorn it; though repugnant, she did not
shirk it ; though hard, she bravely bore it. Her merry
smile, her thoughtful mind, her quick response, the work
of her strong, shapely hands, all blessed our mission
home. She came a stranger to us, but when she left us
in the spring, only for a summer's vacation as we thought,
she was our true and well beloved friend.

" They tell me she is dead ! When the word reached
us, already was the dear form laid away by loving hands
to its last rest.

" Dead ! The house is full of her presence, the work of
her hands is about us, the echo of her voice is in our
morning and vesper hymns, the women and children
whom she taught to sew and knit, and the men whom
she taught to read and write, gather about the door
way. Even now beneath the workman's hammer is
rising the chapel, for which she hoped and prayed and
labored.

" Dead ? No ! The power of her strong young life is
still making itself felt, though the bodily presence is re-
moved from us, nor can that power cease so long as the
work she loved is a living work.

" ' The children all about are sad,' said an Indian wo
man. ' I too am sorrowful. I wanted to see her again.'
The little Theodore, whom she had loved and tended,
folded his hands and prayed, l Bless Miss Emmie up in
heaven, — she was sick and died and went to heaven, —
and bring her back some time.' Sweet, childish prayer

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 337

that would fain reach out with benediction to her who is
beyond the reach of our blessing, eternally blest.

" As she passed away from the fond, enfolding arms
that would have detained her, she breathed a message for
us all. Listen ! Do you not hear her speaking ? ' Work
for the missions, work for the missions. Christ died for
the missions.'

"On the wall of her room still hangs the Scripture
roll as it was left. And this is the word of comfort it
bears : —

" ' I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.'

" * His servants shall serve Him and they shall see His
face."'

THE DAKOTA CONFERENCE.

The sixth annual meeting of the Conference of churches
connected with the Dakota Mission took place at T. L.
Riggs7 station on Peoria bottom, near Fort Sully, com
mencing on Thursday, September 13, 1877, and closing
on Sabbath, the 16th.

The very neat new chapel, which had been in building
only a few weeks, was pushed forward so that it made a
very convenient and comfortable place of meeting. The
Sabbath immediately preceding, it was occupied for relig
ious service. It was very gratifying to see the house
filled by the Indians living here. In the general interest
manifested in religious instructions by the people of
these villages, there is very much to encourage us. Old
men and women, young men and maidens, flock to the
new chapel, and express great gratification that it has
been erected for their benefit.

On Wednesday, the 12th of the month, the delegates
began to come in. The first to arrive were from the

338 MARY AND I.

homestead settlement of Flandreau on the Big Sioux.
They had come 260 miles and traveled ten days. Then
fame the delegation of more than twenty from the Sis-
sc'ton reservation, near Fort Wads worth. And in the
evening came the largest company from the Yankton and
Santee agencies. In all there were over sixty present,
about forty-five of whom were members of the Confer
ence, and all had traveled more than 200 miles. The
last to arrive were John P. Williamson and A. L. Riggs,
who, being disappointed in getting a steamboat, had to
come all the way in the stage.

Our meeting was opened with a sermon by the young
est of our Dakota pastors, Rev. John Eastman of Flan
dreau. This was followed by greetings from T. L. Riggs
and Mr. Yellow Hawk and Mr. Spotted Bear. Responses
by S. R. Riggs, and pastors Artemas, John Renville,
Daniel Renville, Solomon, David, Louis, and Joseph
Blacksmith, followed by A. L. Riggs and John P. Will
iamson, who had just arrived. The meeting was very
enjoyable and was followed by the organization. T. L.
Riggs and David Gray Cloud were the English and Da
kota secretaries, the only officers of the Conference. The
roll contained fifty names, a number less than we have
had present in years past, but quite large, considering
the distance of the place from our churches, and the press
ure of home work.

Friday, after a morning prayer meeting, at which the
house appeared to be full, the Conference was opened
with so large a gathering that it was found necessary to
pack the house, when about two hundred were crowded
in. As yet only a few of these Teetons have changed
their dress, but they sit for three hours, and listen very
attentively to discussions on the questions of " How to

FORTY YEARS WITH THE SIOUX. 339

Study the Bible," and " Who Shall be Received to Church
Membership ? " To the Teetons it was all new, but the
Kitive pastors endeavored to put their thoughts into such
,'onns as to reach their understandings. Chaplain G. D.
Crocker of Sully was present with his family, and added
to the interest. On Saturday, Dr. Cravens, agent at
Cheyenne, with his wife, made us a visit.

The homestead question occupied us for a whole after
noon, and was one which attracted the most attention, as
these Teetons even are greatly exercised to know how
they shall secure a permanent habitation. Daniel Ren-
ville, Joseph Blacksmith, and Esau Iron Frenchman, all
homesteaders, made eloquent appeals in favor of Indians
becoming white men. But their stories of hard times
showed that it had been no child's-play with them.

The report of the executive committee of the native
missionary society was read by A. L. Riggs, and David
Gray Cloud gave an interesting account of his last
winter's work on the Missouri. Speeches were made by
John B. Renville, Joseph Blacksmith, S. R. Riggs, and
John P. Williamson. By vote of the Conference the
same committee was re-elected for another year — A. L.
Riggs, Joseph Blacksmith, and John B. Renville. The
money now in the treasury is about $160, besides certain
.•trticles contributed and not yet sold. The committee
expect to engage the services of one of the pastors for
the coming winter.

Another question discussed was " Household Duties " ;
when the divine constitution of the family was made to
bear against polygamy. This subject bore heavily upon
the principal men of these villages, who were present and
heard it all. It will doubtless cause some searchings of
heart, which we hope will result in changed lives.

340 MARY AND I.

On Saturday afternoon a woman's meeting was held,
which was peculiarly interesting in consequence of Miss
Whipple's unexpected translation. She has worked
herself very much into the hearts of these Teeton
women.

Our whole meeting was closed by the services of the
Sabbath. John P. Williamson preached an impressive
sermon in Dakota; John Eastman led in the service of
song at the organ ; two of the native pastors administered
the Supper of our Lord ; Gray-haired Bear and Estelle
Duprey were united in marriage ; C. H. Howard of The
Advance, made a good talk to the Dakotas on Christian
work through the Holy Spirit's help, and led in an Eng
lish Bible reading ; and finally, John B. Renville gave us
a wonderful series of pictures on the "Glory of Heaven"
— what man's eye hath not seen — man's ear hath not
heard — and man's heart hath not conceived. We shall
long remember the meeting at Peoria bottom, and we
shall expect to see results in the progress of truth in the
minds and hearts of these Teetons.

The Forty Years are completed. In the meantime,
many workers have fallen out of the ranks, but the work
has gone on. It has been marvelous in our eyes. At the
beginning, we were surrounded by the whole Sioux na
tion, in their ignorance and barbarism. At the close we
are surrounded by churches with native pastors. Quite a
section of the Sioux nation has become, in the main,
civilized and Christianized. The entire Bible has been
translated into the language of the Dakotas. The work
of education has been rapidly progressing. The Episco
palians, entering the field many years after we did, have
nevertheless, with more men and more means at their
command, gone beyond us in the occupation of the wilder

FORTY YEAKS WITH THE SIOUX. 341

portions. Their work has enlarged into the bishopric of
Niobrara, which is admirably filled by Bishop Hare.
Thus God has been showing us, by his providence and
his grace, that the red men too may come into the
Kingdom.

APPENDIX.

MONOGRAPHS.

MRS. NINA FOSTER RIGGS, REV. GIDEON H. POND,

SOLOMON, DR. T. S. WILLIAMSON, THE

FAMILY REUNION, AND OTHERS.

343

APPENDIX.

MONOGRAPHS.

MRS. NINA FOSTER RIGGS.

CORNELIA MARGARET, daughter of Hon. John B. Fos
ter and Catharine McGaw Foster, was born in Bangor,
Me., March 19, 1848. Very soon after she left us, on
August 5, 1878, there appeared appreciative testimonials
of her life and character in the Advance, in the lapi
Oaye, and in Life and Light. In preparing this mono
graph, the writer will make free use of all these materials.

Rev. R. B. Howard, while in the Theological Seminary
at Bangor, knew her as Nina Foster, " a golden-haired,
fair-cheeked, gracefully formed little Sabbath-school
scholar of ten, at the Central Church. Her quick, laugh
ing eye, her sensitive face reflecting every changing
thought, her constant companionship of an only sister a
little taller, her ready answers to all Sabbath-school
questions, her intelligent appreciation of the sermons,
and her sunshiny presence at school and at home, were
among the impressions which her childhood gave.

" She lacked no means of cultivating the rare powers
of mind which she early developed. Many things she
seemed to learn intuitively. Her scholarship was bright,

345

346 MARY AND I.

quick, accurate. Literature was her delight. Her
mother's father, Judge McGaw, whose white locks and
venerable presence then honored Bangor, was an inter
ested and judicious guide in the home reading.

"In social life few shone more brilliantly, or were
more admired and sought after. In those days, the
beauty of person of the young lady was of a rare and
noticeable type. Her conversational powers were fasci
nating. She had by nature genuine histrionic talent,
and in conversation, reading, or reciting seemed to be
completely the person she sought to represent. On one
occasion, by a slight change of dress, voice, and manner,
she appeared as an aged widow, pleading with a high
officer of the government at Washington, to help her
find her son, lost in the troublous times of the war."

The "only sister, a little taller," Mrs. Katie Foster
Howard, thus testifies of Nina's early life : —

" When a little child, from eight to twelve years old,
she and some of her companions formed 'a praying
circle,' and had a little room in one of their homes which
they called The House of Prayer. They met often in
this room, and delighted to decorate it after their childish
fashion.

" Another favorite occupation was the teaching of some
poor children whom she and one or two friends brought
out of their dreary homes to the church vestibule, and
there taught to sew and read.

" When eleven years old she was examined by the
pastor and church officers for admission to the church ;
they asked her how long she had loved Jesus, and she
answered, ' Oh, a great many years.' "

Mrs. Howard speaks of her sister as " the little girl in
the Eastern home, whose spirituelle face, with its halo of

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 347

golden hair, seemed so much more of heaven than of
earth as to cause the frequent, anxious comment that
this world could not long detain her. An active, happy
child among her playmates, her thoughts were often upon
heavenly things, and her desire was to turn theirs thither
ward, yet without anything morbid or unchildlike in her
ways.

"As she grew to womanhood, she was the delight of
the home which so tenderly shielded her from every rude
blast, and of a large circle of attached friends. She
possessed those charms of person and manners and
qualities of mind which won admiration, and peculiarly
fitted her to enjoy and adorn society. So when the time
came for her to change this for a secluded life, many
regretted that the fine gold should be sent where baser
metal, as they thought, would do as well ; that the noble
woman, so eminently fitted for usefulness in circles of
refinement, should spend her life among the degraded and
unappreciative savages. But the event has proved that
only such a nature, abounding in resources, could be the
animating spirit of a model home in the wilderness ; which
should be an object-lesson of Christian culture not only
to the Indian but to the army people, who were her only
white neighbors, and who for her sake could look with
interest on a work too often an object of contempt. And
thus the reflex influence upon those who missed her from
their number, or met her as she journeyed to her field of
labor, has been in proportion to the grace of her refine
ment and the depth and breadth of her character. God,
who spared not his own Son, still gives his choicest ones
to the salvation of men."

While on a visit to Chicago, in the family of her sister,
she first became acquainted with Thomas L. Riggs, then

348 MAKY AND I.

a student in the theological seminary. Their mutual
love soon compelled her to consider what it would be to
share in his life-work. She recognized its hardships and
deprivations as could hardly have been expected in one
so inexperienced in life's trials. She afterward often
playf ully said she was " not a missionary, only a mission
ary's wife." But it was a double consecration, joyous
and entire, to the life of wife and missionary.

Thomas and Nina were married at her home in Bangor,
December 26, 1872. It is said, "Christian people, and
even Christian ministers, were inclined to say, ' Why this
waste ? ' ' Some did say it. Some spoke in bitter and
almost angry condemnation of her course. That this
beautiful and accomplished girl, eminently fitted to adorn
any society, should devote herself to a missionary life,
occasioned much comment in the social circle in which
she had been prominent. What could she do for the
coarse, degraded Indian women, that might not be better
done by a less refined, sensitive, and elevated nature?
Why shut up her beauty and talents in the log cabin of
an Indian missionary ? It was a shock to some who had
preached self-sacrifice, and a painful surprise to many
who had been praying the Lord of the harvest to send
laborers. But none of these things moved her. There
has seldom been a sweeter and more lovely bride.
The parents too made the consecration, while they
wrestled in spirit. The father writes : " I gave her up
when she left us on that winter's night. It was a hard
struggle, but I think I gave her unconditionally to God,
to whom she so cheerfully gave herself."

At this season of the year, it was not possible for Nina
to accompany her husband to Fort Sully, and so he left
her at Gen. C. H. Howard's, near Chicago, to come on in

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 349

the early spring. This was my first opportunity of
becoming acquainted with " Mitakosh Washta," as I soon
learned to call her. General Howard accompanied her to
Sioux City, and then I became her escort by railroad and
stage to Santee agency, and thence by steamboat to
Sully. The boat was nearly two weeks on the way, and
we took on two companies of United States troops at
Fort Randall. The officers soon manifested a marked
admiration for the beauty and culture of the Bangor
lady ; so that afterward, in alluding to this little episode,
I used playfully to say to Nina that I was rejoiced when
Thomas, coming down the Missouri in his skiff, met us
and took charge of his bride.

We had but a few weeks to spend at Fort Sully, until
we should start down to the meeting of our annual Con
ference, which was held in June that year, at the Yankton
agency. But those weeks were full of pleasure to Nina.
Everything was new and strange. She was devoid of
fear when she sat in the iron skiff, and crossed the Big
Muddy with her husband at the helm. The time came
to go down. It was nearly noon on Monday when we
were ready to start ; but, by hard driving, we were able
to reach Rev. John P. Williamson's — more than 200
miles — by the afternoon of Thursday. Secretary S. J.
Humphrey, from Chicago, was there, and afterward
wrote that for T. L. Riggs and the father, who were
accustomed to hard traveling and sleeping on the ground,
it was nothing very strange ; but for one reared as Nina
had been, it was simply wonderful.

This was the first meeting of Martha Riggs Morris
with her new sister. When the latter had gone beyond
our ken, Martha wrote an appreciative article for the
Word Carrier: "Let me give something," she wrote,

350 MARY AND I.

" of the little glimpses I have had of her brave, cheery
life. I may first go back to the time when we first heard
of Nina Foster — who thought enough of T. L. Riggs and
the Indian work to help him in it. That was in the
spring-time. A few months later, Thomas had a hard
ride across from Fort Sully to Sisseton on horseback,
accompanied by a soldier for guard and an Indian for
guide. He came to attend the annual Conference of the
Dakota churches, and he showed us a picture of the
young lady herself. A beautiful face, we all thought it
was. And from what we heard of Nina Foster, we were
all prepared to take her into our hearts, as we did when
we saw her afterward.

" It was in June of the year following that I had my
first glimpse of her. I had myself taken a tedious jour
ney of some three hundred miles, and the years as well as
the journey had worn upon me. So I felt some trepida
tion about meeting the blooming bride. But, on seeing
her, that soon vanished, and I had nothing left but
admiration for the beautiful sister. She told so merrily
how they had strapped her in, to keep her from falling
out of the wagon, and other incidents of her unaccus
tomed journey. There was an evident determination to
make the best of every experience."

A little while after this Mrs. Morris was called to lay
away her blue-eyed boy out of sight. Then Nina's letter
was very comforting. " I have wept," she says, " with
you for the dear little baby form laid away from your
arms to its last sleep ; and I think of your words, ' Noth
ing to do any more.' Ah ! my dear sister, He will not
so leave you comfortless. He who forgot not, in the last
hours of his earthly life, to give to the aching mother-
heart a new care and love, will not forget, I think, to

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 351

bestow on your emptied hands some new duty which
shall grow to be a joy."

At the meeting of the American Board at Minneapolis
in the autumn of 1873, Mrs. Nina Riggs was present, and
addressed the ladies of the Woman's Board, asking for a
young lady companion in her far-off field. To this call
Miss Lizzie Bishop of Northfield responded, and gave
the remainder of her bright, true life to help on the
work at Fort Sully. Nina visited her sister in Chicago,
and charmed them all by reciting her strange experi
ences of the summer. " Her buoyant spirits and faculty
for seeing the droll side of everything helped to make
the sketch a bright one. Her sense of humor and keen
wit has lightened many a load for herself and others ;
the more forlorn and hopeless the situation, the more
elastic her spirits. How often have those of her own
household, wearied with severe labor and weighed down
with care, been compelled to laugh, almost against their
will, by her irresistible drollery, and thus the current of
thought was turned and the burden half thrown aside."

In the summer of 1874 baby Theodore was born, and
none from Fort Sully came to our annual meeting. On
my way from a visit to Fort Berthold, down the Mis
souri River, I stopped off for a few days. They were
then occupying Hope Station, across the river from the
fort. Both Miss Bishop and Mrs. Nina Riggs I found
very enthusiastic over their work for the Teeton women.

When another year had been completed, Lizzie Bishop
had gone home to die, and Nina Riggs made a visit to
her friends in the East. The Board met in Chicago that
autumn, and Mrs. Riggs again addressed the ladies.
"Two years ago," she said, "at a meeting in Minneapo
lis, I made a request which was promptly answered. I

352 MARY AND I.

asked for a young lady to go back with me to the mis
sion work. I find her name is not on the rolls. But if
ever a brave life should be recorded, and the name of an
earnest woman be loved and remembered by all, it is
that of Miss Lizzie Bishop of Northfield, Minn. We
had hoped that she might return, but the Lord has not
seen fit to allow that. He calls her to himself soon.
For the past two years I have been at different stations.
I was at Hope Station, on the west side of the Missouri.
Now I am at Bogue Station, fifteen miles below Fort
Sully, on the east side. Since I have been there, I have
met a great many women. At first they all seemed to
me very degraded; but I have come not only to feel
interested in many of them, but to love some of them
with a very deep love." So spake Nina ; and when she
sat down, a telegram was read that the good and brave
Lizzie Bishop had already entered in through the gates
of pearl, into "Jerusalem the golden."

Two others, Miss Mary C. Collins and Miss Emma-
retta Whipple, were ready to start back with Mrs.
Riggs. So the vacant place was more than filled, and
they all girded themselves for a hard winter's work.

A little before this time, Nina sent to the Word
Carrier a short bit of poetry, which seems to embody
her own wrestling with doubt in others. The last stanza
reads : —

" With daring heart, I too have tried

To know the height and depth of God above;
And can I wonder that I too walked blind,

And felt stern Justice in the place of Love ?
Above the child, the sun shines on ;

Above me too One reigns I cannot see;
Yet all around I feel both warmth and power;

If God is not, whence can their coming be ? "

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 353

In September, 1876, the great gathering of the Dakota
mission was held in the new Ascension church, on the

, Sisseton reservation. Mrs. Morris writes : " We looked
out eagerly for the travelers from Fort Sully way. We
hoped they would come a few days beforehand, so that
we might have more of their companionship. But they
did not come. And as we had to be on hand in the
Ascension neighborhood, ten miles away, to entertain the

. missionaries that might come, we shut up our house, and
went on without the Fort Sully friends. It was Friday
noon when they arrived, and received a glad welcome
from all."

Thomas and Nina and their little lad Theodore, now
two years old, who amused every one with his quaint
sayings, together with Miss Collins and Miss Whipple,
with all their personal and camping baggage, had been
packed for eight days into a small two-horse buggy.
The journey of 250 miles, the way they traveled, over
a country uninhabited, was not without its romance.
" Not the least of the enjoyment of this ' feast of days,'
were the bits of talk sandwiched in here and there be
tween meetings, and caring for the children and provid
ing for the guests. As we baked the bread and watched
over the two cousins, Theodore and Mary Theodora, so
nearly of an age, we had many a pleasant chat — Nina
and I. She gave me an insight into their happy home-
life, and I longed to know more. She told, too, of her
special work in visiting the homes of the Teetons, and
prescribing for the sick. At the special meeting held for
the women, Nina made a few remarks, winning all hearts
by her grace of manners, as well as by her lovely face.
Now that she is gone, the Dakota women speak of her
as « the beautiful woman who spoke so well,' "

354 MARY AND I.

" To all who come I wish my home to seem a pleasant
home," is a remark which Miss Collins accredits to Nina.
So indeed we found it in the months of August and Sep
tember of 1877. The dear Miss Whipple had just
stepped into the boat at Chicago which carried her to
the farther shore. Miss Collins was mourning over her
departed comrade while making out the visit to her
friends. By appointment I met on the way, Gen.
Charles H. Howard of the Advance, who, with his fam- •
ily, was bound for Fort Sully. We were prospered in
our journey up the Missouri, and gladly welcomed into
the mission home on Peoria bottom. The two sisters
met and passed some happy weeks in the home of the
younger one. Mrs. Howard thus describes that home in
those August days : " Its treeless waste lay under a
scorching sun. Beneath a bluff which overlooks the
river lowlands, nestled a solitary green enclosure around
a long, low dwelling, whose aspect was of comfort and
of home. The sunshine which withered the surrounding
country was not the gentle power under which had
sprung up this oasis in the desert. The light within the
house, whose sweet radiance beautified the humble dwell
ing, and shone forth upon the wilderness around, was
the fair soul, whose heaven-reflected glory touched all
who came within its ray."

To the same effect is Miss Collins' testimony : " I
think no one ever entered her home without feeling that
the very house was purified by her presence. I remem
ber well just how she studied our different tastes. She
knew every member of the family thoroughly ; and our
happiness was consulted in all things." So we all
thought. Nina presided in her own home, albeit that
home was in Dakota land, with a queenly grace.

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 355

About the middle of that September our annual Con
ference met in their new and not yet finished chapel, on
Peoria bottom. Miss Collins did not get back until the
close of the meeting. Besides her guests, Mrs. Nina
Kiggs had a good deal of company from Fort Sully and
the agency. But it was all entertained with the same
quiet dignity. Of this visit to her sister, Mrs. Howard
wrote afterward : "I do not know how to be grateful
enough that we spent last summer (1877) together; it is
a season of blessed memory."

To this I add : I too have one last picture of Nina in
my memory. I was to return to Sisseton with the Ind
ians who had come over to our annual Conference. They
went up on Monday to Cheyenne agency to get rations
for the journey. On Tuesday afternoon Thomas arranged
to take me out fifteen miles to meet them. Thinking they
would go out and return that evening a party was made
up. The two sisters, Mrs. Howard and Nina, and little
Theodore and Thomas and myself in a buggy, and
Gen. C. H. Howard and "Mack" on ponies, we had a
pleasant ride out. But it was too late for them to return.
The Dakota friends gave us of their fresh meat, and
with the provisions Nina had bountifully supplied for my
journey, we all made a good supper and breakfast, and
had an abundance left. The next morning we separated.
That was my last sight of Nina.

In midsummer of 1878, the time for her departure
came. She seemed to have a premonition of its coming.
Miss Collins writes : " The last summer of her precious
life seemed a very fitting one for the last. She labored
earnestly for the conversion of her boy, and said : ' If I
should die and leave my boy, I should feel so much bet
ter satisfied to go if he had that stronghold,' "

356 MARY AND I.

In the Word Carrier for September appeared this
notice: "Our beloved Nina Foster Riggs, wife of Rev.
T. L. Riggs of Bogue Station, near Fort Sully, has heard
the Master's call, and gone up higher. She was taken
away in child-birth, on the 5th of August. Hers was a
beautiful life, blossoming out into what we supposed
would be a grand fruitage of blessing to the Dakotas. It
is cut off suddenly ! * Even so, Father, for so it seemeth
good in thy sight.' IVe are dumb, because tliou didst it ! "

Two days after her death, Thomas wrote: "Dear
Father — Mitakosh Washta has been taken from us. My
good Nina has gone. She was taken sick Saturday night.
Before the light of the Sabbath, violent convulsions had
set in. We got the post surgeon and Mrs. Crocker here
as soon as possible ; but, though every effort was made,
the spasms could not be prevented, and our dear one sank
gradually out of reach. Early Monday morning, after
child-birth, the mother seemed to brighten a bit; but
soon our gladness was turned to sadness, for she did not
rally. God took her. She was his. We buried the
body — the beautiful house of the more beautiful spirit —
in the yard near her window, yesterday. May God help
us."

Only a few days before, a kind Providence had guided
Arther H. Day, a cousin of Nina's, from his work in the
office of the Advance, in Chicago, and Robert B. Riggs
from his teaching in Beloit College, up to Peoria bottom,
for a little rest. And so they were there to help and
give sympathy. Of this event Mr. Day wrote : " Rarely
is it the lot of one so blessed with loving relatives and
friends to pass away surrounded by so few to sympathize,
and to be buried with so few to weep. Three relatives
and nine other white friends stood alone by her grave.

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 357

and the many hundreds in the far East knew not of the
scene. I say white friends, because I would not ignore
the presence of those many dusky faces which looked on
in sorrow, because their friend was dead.

" About noon on Tuesday, August 6, the funeral ser
vice was conducted by Chaplain Crocker. The same
hymn was sung that, by Nina's own choice, had been sung
at her wedding : —

" * Guide me, O thou great Jehovah.'

One room of the house was filled with Indians, and the
service was partly in the native language. Her grave
was made near the window of her room, where she so
often had beheld the sunset ; and as kindly hands laid
her body there, surrounded by beautiful flowers, the chap
lain said : ' Never was more precious dust laid in Dakota
soil — never more hopeful seed planted for a spiritual har
vest among the Dakota people.' ':

This beautiful summing-up of her character appeared as
an editorial in the Advance, by Rev. Simeon Gilbert : —

" Here was a young woman of extraordinary beauty of person,
of still more noticeable symmetry and completeness of mental en
dowment, sweetness and nobility of disposition, brightness and
elasticity of temperament; quickly, keenly sympathetic with
others' joys and sorrows — but who had never known a grief of
her own; converted in infancy, reared in one of the happiest of
earnest Christian homes, and favored with as fine social and edu
cational advantages as the country affords; with too much sense
to be affected by mere 'romance,' yet deeply alive to all the
poetry alike in literature and in real life; and withal, from early
childhood, with a spiritual imagination exquisitely alive to the
realness and the nearness of unseen things, and the all-controlling
sweep of the motives springing therefrom; — rarely does one meet
a young person better fitted at once to enjoy and to adorn what is

358 MARY AND I.

best in American Christian homes. At the age of twenty-four
she marries a young man just out of the seminary, and goes forth
with him beyond the frontiers of civilization, into the very heart
f savage Indian tribes. What a sacrifice; what a venture; what
cvrtain-coming solicitudes, perils, cares, deprivations, hardships,
loneliness, and mountainous discouragements! And there for the
short period of less than five years she lives, when suddenly the
young missionary is left alone, longing for the ' touch of a van
ished hand and the sound of a voice that is still.'

" Now, a case like this must set one to studying over again what,
after all, is the true philosophy of life, and what, on the whole,
is the wisest economy of personal forces in the church's work of
Christianizing the world. As helping to a right answer, let us
note a few facts : —

"1. It costs to save a lost world; and nothing is wasted that
serves well that end. God himself has given for this purpose the
choicest, the highest, and the best which it was possible for even
him to give.

"2. Heathen people, even savages, as we call them, are not in
sensible to the unique fascination, and power to subdue and inspire,
which belong to what is really most beautiful in aspect, manner,
mind, and character. Often it is to them as if they had seen a
vision, or dreamed a startling dream of possibilities of which they
had known nothing, and could have known nothing, until they
saw it, and the sight awakened into being and action the diviner
elements of their own hidden nature. The Word of God is one
form of revelation, but the work of God in a peculiarly complete
and lovely character is another revelation, and one that unmistak
ably interprets itself. There is as much need of the one as there
is of the other. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God
:n the face of Christ must, in most cases at least, first be seen
reflected ' in the face ' of some of his disciples. The more dense
the darkness, the more intense must be the shining of the love
and the beauty of the truth which are to enlighten, captivate, lead
forth, and refine. Among all the teepees and huts of that Indian
reservation, as also throughout the barracks and quarters of the
military post at Fort Sully, Mrs. Riggs was known, and the potent
charm of her personal influence and home-life was deeply felt. It
is largely due to such persons that the cause of missions, even
among the most degraded, commands the respect, if not the

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 359

veneration, of those who otherwise might have looked on deri
sively.

" 3. Nor, again, are the lives of such persons wasted as regards
their influence upon those who knew them, or shall come to know
of them; at home. 'How far that little candle throws its beams;
so shines a good example ' ; and in instances like these it shines
more effectively than, perhaps, in any other circumstances would
have been possible. If one were to mention a score of American
women who have exerted most influence in determining the best
characteristics of American women, half of them, we suspect,
would be names of the women who, leaving home and coun
try, went far forth seeking to multiply similar homes in other
countries.

"4. Nor, again, is the strangely beautiful life wasted because cut
short so early in its course. The ointment most precious was
never more so than when its box was broken and the odor of it
filled all the house. This that this young missionary has done,
animated by the love of the Master and a sacred passion for lift
ing up the lowly, will be spoken of as a memorial of her in all
the churches; and in not a few homes, of the rich as of the poor,
will be felt the sweet constraint of her beautiful, joyous, conse
crated life. She was not alone; there are many more like her;
and, best of all, there are to be vastly more yet, who will not be
deaf to ' the high calling.' The Master has need of them. The
way, on the whole, is infinitely attractive. Thanks for the life of
this woman who did so much, from first to last, to make it ap
pear so !

" And thanks too for such a death, which, coming in the sweet-
•st and completest blooming of life's beauty, when not a fault
had stayed to mar it, and no wrasting had ever touched it — an
ending which transfigures all that came before it, and which now,
in the mingling of retrospect and prospect, helps those who knew
her to a deeply surprised sense of the fact that,

' To Death it is given,
To see how this world is embosomed in heaven.' "

To us, who are blind and cannot see afar off, it is im
possible to perceive, and difficult to believe, that the
taking away in the vigor of womanhood of one who was

360

MARY AND I.

showing such a capacity and adaptability for the work of
elevating the Teetons can be made to subserve the fur
therance of the cause of Christ. But we must believe
that God, who sees the end from the beginning, and who
makes no mistakes, will bring out of this sore bereave
ment a harvest of joy ; and that that grave under the
window of the mission house in Peoria bottom will be a
testimony to the love of Jesus and the power of his Gos
pel, that will thrill and uplift many hearts from Bangor
to Fort Sully. It was a beautiful life of faith and ser
vice ; and it has only gone to be perfected in the shadow
of the Tree of Life.

S. R. R.

REV. GIDEON H. POND.

A SUCCESSFUL LIFE.

BORN and brought up in Litchfield county, in a town
adjoining Washington, Connecticut, Rev. George Bush-
nell visited that hill country in his youth, and was
deeply impressed with the manifest and pervading
religious element in the community. Taken there
by a special providence, more than a quarter of a
century ago, and enjoying the privilege of a visit in
some of the families, it seemed to me that it had been
a good place to raise men. This was on the line of the
impression made upon me years before that. When I
first met, in the land of the Dakotas, the brothers Sam
uel W. and Gideon H. Pond, they were both over six
feet high, and " seemed the children of a king."

In this hill town of Washington, on the 30th of June,
1810, Gideon Hollister, the younger of the two brothers,
was born. His parents \vere Elnathan Judson and Sarah
Hollister Pond. Gideon was the fifth child, and so was
called by the Dakotas Ilakay. Of his childhood and
youth almost nothing is known to the writer. He had
the advantage of a New England common-school educa
tion ; perhaps nothing more. As he grew very rapidly
and came to the size and strength of man early, he made
a full hand in the harvest field at the age of sixteen. To
this ambition to be counted a man and do a man's work

361

362 MARY AND I.

when as yet he should have been a boy, he in after life
ascribed some of his infirmities. This ambition con
tinued with him through life, and occasional over-work at
last undermined a constitution that might, with care and
God's blessing, have continued to the end of the century.

He came to the land of the Dakotas, now Minnesota,
in the spring of 1834. The older brother, Samuel, had
come out as far as Galena, 111., in the summer previous.
The pioneer minister of that country of lead was Rev.
Aratus Kent, who desired to retain Mr. Pond as an
adjutant in his great and constantly enlarging work;
but Mr. Pond had heard of the Sioux, or Dakotas, for
whose souls no one cared, and, having decided to go to
them, he sent for his brother Gideon to accompany him.

When they reached Fort Snelling, and made known
their errand to the commanding officer of the post,
Major Bliss, and to the resident Indian agent, Major
Taliaferro, they received the hearty approval and co-op
eration of both, and the agent at once recommended
them to commence work with the Dakotas of the Lake
Calhoun village, where some steps had already been
taken in the line of civilization. There, on the margin
of the lake, they built their log cabin. Last summer
Mr. King's grand Pavilion, so called, was completed on
the same spot, which gave occasion for Mr. Gideon H.
Pond to tell the story of this first effort in that line :

"Just forty-three years previous to the occurrence above al
luded to, 011 the same beautiful site, was completed an humble
edifice, built by the hands of two inexperienced New England
boys, just setting out in life-work. The foundation-stones of that
hut were removed to make place for the present Pavilion, per
chance compose a part of it. The old structure was of oak logs,
carefully peeled. The peeling was a mistake. Twelve feet by

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 363

•

sixteen, and eight feet high, were the dimensions of the edifice.
Straight poles from the tamarack grove west of the lake formed
the timbers of the roof, and the roof itself was of the bark of trees
which grew on the bank of what is now called ' Bassett's Creek,'
fastened with strings of the inner bark of the bass wood. A par
tition of small logs divided the house into two rooms, and split
logs furnished material for a floor. The ceiling was of slabs from
the old government saw-mill, through the kindness of Major
Bliss, who was in command of Fort Snelling. The door was
made of boards split from a log with an axe, having wooden
hinges and fastenings, and was locked by pulling in the latch-
string. The single window was the gift of the kind-hearted Major
Lawrence Taliaferro, United States Indian agent. The cash cost
of the building was one shilling, New York currency, for nails
used in and about the door. * The formal opening ' exercises
consisted in reading a section from the old book by the name of
BIBLE, and prayer to Him who was its acknowledged author.
The 'banquet' consisted of mussels from the lake, flour and
water. The ground was selected by the Indian chief of the
Lake Calhoun band of Dakotas, Man-of-the-sky, by which
he showed good taste. The reason he gave for the selection
was that 'from that point the loons would be visible on the
lake.'

" The old chief and his pagan people had their homes on the
surface of that ground in the bosom of which now sleep the
bodies of deceased Christians from the city of Minneapolis,
the Lake Wood cemetery, over which these old eyes have
witnessed, dangling in the night breeze, many a Chippewa
scalp, in the midst of horrid chants, yells, and wails, widely
contrasting with the present stillness of that quiet home of
those

' Who sleep the years away.'

That hut was the home of the first citizen settlers of Hennepin
county, perhaps of Minnesota, the first school-room, the first
house for divine worship, and the first mission station among the
Dakota Indians."

The departure of Mr. Pond called forth from Gen.
Henry H. Sibley so just and beautiful a tribute, that I

364 MARY AND I.

•

can not forbear inserting a portion, from the Pioneer
Press of St. Paul : —

" When the writer came to this country, in 1834, he did not ex
pect to meet a single white man, except those composing the
garrison at Fort Snelling, a few government officials attached to
the department of Indian affairs, and the traders and voyageurs
employed by the great fur company in its business. There was
but one house, or, rather, log cabin, along the entire distance of
nearly 300 miles between Prairie du Chien and St. Peters, now
Mendota, and that was at a point below Lake Pepin, near the
present town of Wabashaw. What was his surprise then to find
that his advent had been preceded in the spring of the same year
by two young Americans, Samuel W. Pond and Gideon H. Pond,
brothers, scarcely out of their teens, who had built for them
selves a small hut at the Indian village of Lake Calhouu, and
had determined to consecrate their lives to the work of civilizing
and Christianizing the wild Sioux. For many long years these
devoted men labored in the cause, through manifold diffi
culties and discouragements, sustained by a faith that the seed
sown would make itself manifest in God's good time. The ef
forts then made to reclaim the savages from their mode of life,
the influence of their blameless and religious walk and conversa
tion upon those with whom they were brought in daily contact,
and the self-denial and personal sacrifices required at their
hands, are doubtless treasured up in a higher than human
record."

General Sibley mentions an incident belonging to this
period of their residence at Lake Calhoun, which never
before came to my knowledge : —

" Gifted with an uncommonly fine constitution, the subject of
this sketch met with an accident in his early days, from the effects
of which it is questionable if he ever entirely recovered. He
broke through the ice at Lake Harriet in the early part of the
winter, and as there was no one at hand to afford aid, he only
saved his life after a desperate struggle, by continuing to fracture
the frozen surface until he reached shallow water, when he sue-

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 365

ceeded in extricating himself. His long immersion and exhaustive
efforts brought on a severe attack of pneumonia, which for many
days threatened a fatal termination."

My own personal acquaintance with Mr. Pond com
menced in the summer of 1837. He was then, and had
been for a year previous, at Lac-qui-parle. In September
my wife and I joined that station, and the first event
occurring after that, which has impressed itself upon my
memory, was the marriage of Mr. Pond and Miss Sarah
Poao-e, sister of Mrs. Dr. Williamson. This was the

o ' .

first marriage ceremony I had been called upon to per
form ; and Mr. Pond signalized it by making a feast, and
calling, according to the Saviour's injunction, "the poor,
the maimed, the halt, and the blind." And there was a
plenty of such to be called in that Dakota village. They
could not recompense him, but " he shall be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just."

Mr. Pond had long been yearning to see what was in
side of an Indian. He sometimes said he wanted to be an
Indian, if only for a little while, that he might know how
an Indian felt, and by what motives he could be moved.
When the early spring of 1838 came, and the ducks
began to come northward, a half-dozen Dakota families
started from Lac-qui-parle to hunt and trap on the upper
part of the Chippewa River, in the neighborhood of
where the town of Benson now is. Mr. Pond went
with them and was gone two weeks. It was in the
month of April, and the streams were flooded and the
water was cold. There should have been enough of
game easily obtained to feed the party. But it did not
prove so. A cold spell came on, the ducks disappeared,
and Mr. Pond and his Indian hunters were reduced to

366 MARY AND I.

scanty fare, and sometimes they had nothing for a whole
day. But Mr. Pond was seeing inside of Indians and
was quite willing to starve a good deal. However, his
stay with them, and their hunt for that time as well, was
suddenly terminated, by the appearance of the Ojibwa
chief Hole-in-the-Day and ten men with him. They came
to smoke the peace-pipe, they said. They were royally
feasted by three of the families, who killed their dogs
to feed the strangers, who, in turn, arose in the night
and killed the Dakotas. As God would have it, Mr.
Pond was not then with those three tents, and so he
escaped.

No one had started with more of a determination to
master the Dakota language than Gideon H. Pond. And
no one of the older missionaries succeeded so well in
learning to talk just like a Dakota. Indeed, he must
have had a peculiar aptitude for acquiring language ; for
in these first years of missionary life, he learned to read
French and Latin and Greek, so that the second Mrs.
Pond writes : " When I came, and for a number of
years, he read from the Greek Testament at our family
worship in the morning. Afterward he used his Latin
Bible, and still later his French Testament."

In this line of literary work General Sibley's testimony
is appreciative. He says : —

" Indeed, to them, and to their veteran co-laborers, Rev. T. S.
Williamson and Rev. S. R. Riggs, the credit is to be ascribed of
having produced this rude and rich Dakota tongue to the learned
world in a written and systematic shape, the lexicon prepared by
their joint labors forming one of the publications of the Smith
sonian Institute at Washington City, which has justly elicited the
commendation of experts in philological lore, as a most valuable
contribution to that branch of literature,"

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 367

While Mr. Pond was naturally ambitious, he was also
peculiarly sensitive and retiring. When the writer was
left with him at Lac-qui-parle, Dr. Williamson having
gone to Ohio for the winter, although so much better
master of the Dakota than I was at that time, he was un
willing to take more than a secondary part in the Sabbath
services. "Dr. Williamson and you are ministers," he
would say. And even years afterward, when he and his
family had removed to the neighborhood of Fort Snelling,
and he and his brother had built at Oak Grove, with the
people of their first love, Gideon H. could hardly be per
suaded that it was his duty to become a preacher of the
Gospel. I remember more than one long conversation I
had with him on the subject. He seemed to shrink from
it as a little child, although he was then thirty-seven
years old.

In the spring of 1847, he and Mr. Robert Hopkins
were licensed by the Dakota presbytery, and ordained in
the autumn of 1848. We were not disappointed in our
men. Mr. Hopkins gave evidence of large adaptation to
the missionary work ; but in less than three years he
heard the call of the Master, and went up through a flood
of waters. Mr. Pond, notwithstanding his hesitation in
accepting the office, became a most acceptable and efficient
and successful preacher and pastor.

After the treaties of 1851, these Lower Sioux were re
moved to the Upper Minnesota. White people came in
immediately and took possession of their lands. Mr.
Pond elected to remain and labor among the white people.
He very soon organized a church, which in a short time
became a working, benevolent church — for some years
the banner Presbyterian church of Minnesota in the way
of benevolence. When, in 1873, Mr. Pond resigned his

368 MARY AND I.

pastorate, he wrote in his diary, " I have preached to the
people of Bloomington twenty years." He received home
mission aid only a few years.

We are very glad to have placed at our disposal so
much of the private journal of the late Rev. G. H. Pond
as relates to the wonderful work of God among the
Dakotas in prison at Mankato, Minn., in the winter of
1862-63. The facts, in the main, have been published
before ; but the story, as told so simply and graphically
by Mr. Pond, may well bear repeating. Mr. Pond arrived
at Mankato Saturday, January 31, 1863, and remained
until the afternoon of Tuesday, February 3 : —

14 There are over three hundred Indians in prison, the most of
whom are in chains. There is a degree of religious interest mani
fested by them, which is incredible. They huddle themselves to
gether every morning and evening in the prison, and read the
Scriptures, sing hymns, confess one to another, exhort one another,
and pray together. They say that their whole lives have been
wicked — that they have adhered to the superstitions of their an
cestors until they have reduced themselves to their present state of
wretchedness and ruin. They declare that they have left it all,
and will leave all forever ; that they do and will embrace the re
ligion of Jesus Christ, and adhere to it as long as they live ; and
that this is their only hope, both in this world and in the next.
They say that before they came to this state of mind — this deter
mination — their hearts failed them with fear, but now they have
much mental ease and comfort.

" About fifty men of the Lake Calhoun band expressed a wish
to be baptized by me, rather than by any one else, on the ground
that my brother and myself had been their first and chief in
structors in religion. After consultation with Rev. Marcus Hicks
of Mankato. Dr. Williamson and I decided to grant their request,
and administer to them the Christian ordinance of baptism. We
made the conditions as plain as we could, and we proclaimed
there in the prison that we would baptize such as felt ready
heartily to comply with the conditions — commanding that none

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 369

should come forward to receive the rite who did not do it heartily
to the God of heaven, whose eye penetrated each of their hearts.
All, by a hearty — apparently hearty — response, signified their
desire to receive the rite on the conditions offered.

"As soon as preparations could be completed, and we had pro
vided ourselves with a basin of water, they came forward, one by
one, as their names were called, and were baptized into the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, while each subject
stood with his right hand raised and head bowed, and many of them
with the eyes closed, with an appearance of profound reverence.
As each one passed from the place where he stood to be baptized,
one or the other of us stopped him and addressed to him, in a low
voice, a few words, such as our knowledge of his previous character
and the solemnities of the occasion suggested. The effect of this,
in most cases, seemed to very much deepen the solemnity of the
ceremony. I varied my words, in this part of the exercises, to suit
the case of the person; and when gray-haired medicine-men stood
literally trembling before me, as I laid one hand on their heads,
the effect on my mind was such that at times my tongue faltered.
The words which I used in this part of the service were the follow
ing, or something nearly like them in substance : ' My brother,
this is the mark of God which is placed upon you. You will
carry it while you live. It introduces you into the great family of
God, who looked down from heaven, not upon your head, but into
your heart. This ends your superstition, and from this time you
are to call God your Father. Remember to honor him. Be re
solved to do his will.' It made me glad to hear them respond,
'Yes, I will.'

" When we were through, and all were again seated, we sung a
hymn appropriate to the occasion, in which many of them joined,
and then prayed. I then said to them, ' Hitherto I have addressed
you as friends ; now I call you brothers. For years we have con
tended together on this subject of religion ; now our contentions
cease. We have one Father — we are one family. I must now
leave you, and probably shall see you no more in this world.
While you remain in this prison, you have time to attend to re
ligion. You can do nothing else. Your adherence to the Medi
cine Sack and the Wotawe has brought you to ruin. Our Lord
Jesus Christ can save you. Seek him with all your heart. He
looks not on your heads nor on your lips, but into your bosoms.

370 MABY AND I.

Brothers, I will make use of a term of brotherly salutation, to
which you have been accustomed in your medicine dance, and
say to you, Brothers, I spread my hands over you and bless
you.' The hearty answer of three hundred voices made me feel
glad.

" The outbreak and events which followed it have, under God,
broken into shivers the power of the priests of devils, which has
hitherto ruled these wretched tribes. They were before bound in
the chains and confined in the prison of Paganism, as the prisoners
in the prison at Philippi were bound with chains. The outbreak
and its attendant consequences have been like the earthquake to
shake the foundation of their prison, and every one's bonds have
been loosed. Like the jailer, in anxious fear they have cried,
'Sirs, what must we do to be saved ?' They have been told to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who will still save unto the
uttermost all that come unto God by him. They say they repent
and forsake their sins — that they believe on him, that they trust
in him, and will obey him. Therefore they have been baptized
into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, three hundred in a day."

In the spring of 1853, Mrs. Sarah Poage Pond de
parted, after a lingering illness of eighteen months, and
left a "blessed memory." There were seven children by
this marriage, all of whom are living, and have families of
their own, but George, who died while in the Lane Theo
logical Seminary. In the summer of 1854, Mr. Pond was
married to his second wife, Mrs. Agnes C. J. Hopkins,
widow of Rev. Robert Hopkins. The second Mrs. Pond
brought her three children, making the united family of
children at that time ten. Six have been added since.
And there are twenty-two grandchildren, six of whom
are members of the Church of Christ, together with all
the children and their companions. Is not that a success
ful life? Counting the widowed mother and those who
have come into the family by marriage, there are, I

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 871

understand, just fifty who mourn the departure of the
patriarch father. A little more than two-score years ago,
he was one ; and now behold a multitude !

Mary Frances Hopkins, who came into the family when
a girl, and afterward married Edward R. Pond, the son,
writes thus : " To me he was as near an own father as it is
possible for one to be who is so by adoption, and I shall
always be glad I was allowed to call him father."

The members of the synod of Minnesota will remem
ber with great pleasure Mr. Pond's presence with them
at their last meeting at St. Paul, in the middle of October.
For some years past, he has frequently been unable to be
present. This time he seemed to be more vigorous than
usual, and greatly entertained the synod and people of
St. Paul with his terse and graphic presentation of some
of the Lord's workings in behalf of the Dakotas.

During the meeting I was quartered with Mrs. Gov
ernor Ramsay. On Saturday I was charged with a mes
sage to Mr. Pond, inviting him to come and spend the
night at the governor's. We passed a profitable evening
together, and he and I talked long of the way in which
the Lord had led us; of the great prosperity he had given

us in our families and in our work. Neither of us thought,

e> '

probably, that that would be our last talk this side the
golden city. The next day, Sabbath, he preached in the
morning, for Rev. D. R. Breed, in the House of Hope,
which, probably, was his last sermon. In the evening he
was with us in the Opera House, at a meeting in the in
terest of home and foreign missions.

" His health gradually failed," Mrs. Pond writes, " from
the time of his return from synod, though he did not
call himself sick until the llth of January, 1878, and he
died on Sabbath, the 20th, about noon." She adds : " His

372 MARY AND I.

interest in the Indians, for whom he labored so long, was
very deep, and he always spoke of them with loving ten
derness, and often with tears. One of the last things he
did was to look over his old Dakota hymns, revised by
J. P. W. and A. L. R., and sent to him for his consent to
the proposed alterations."

" His simple faith in the Lord Jesus caused him all the
time to live a life of self-denial, that he might do more
to spread the knowledge of Jesus' love to those who
knew it not." The love of Christ constrained him, and
was his ruling passion.

Of his last days the daughter says : —

" He really died of consumption. The nine days he
was confined to bed he suffered much ; but his mind was
mostly clear, and he was very glad to go. I think the
summons was no more sudden to him than to Elijah. He
was to the last loving and trustful, brave and patient.
To his brother Samuel, as he came to his sick bed, he
said : c So we go to see each other die.' Some time be
fore he had visited Samuel when he did not expect to
recover. < My struggles are over. The Lord has taken
care of me, and he will take care of the rest of you. My
hope is in the Lord,' he said.

" Toward the last it was hard for him to converse, and
he bade us no formal farewell. But the words, as we
noted them down, were words of cheer and comfort :
' You have nothing to fear, for the present or the future.'
And so was given to him the victory over death, through
faith in Jesus."

Is that dying f He sleeps with his fathers. He has
gone to see the King in. his beauty r, in a land not very
far off.

As loving hands ministered to him in his sickness, lov-

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 373

ing hearts mourned at his death. On the Wednesday
following he was buried. A half a dozen brothers in the
ministry were present at his funeral, and, fittingly, Mr.
Breed of the House of Hope preached the sermon.
This is success.

S. R. R.

SOLOMON.

IN the summer of 1874 Rev. John P. Williamson made
a tour up the Missouri River as far as Fort Peck. His
judgment was that there was no opening at that place
for the establishment of a new mission, but that something

' o

might possibly be done by native Dakotas. In the mean
time, we had heard from the regions farther north than
Fort Peck, where some of our church-members had gone
after the outbreak of 1862. Somewhere up in Manitoba,
near Fort Ellice, was Henok Appearing Cloud, with his
relatives. His mother, Mazaskawin, — Silver- Woman, —
was a member of the Hazelwood church, and his father,
Wamde-okeya, — Eagle Help, — had been my old helper
in Dakota translations. These were all near relatives of
Solomon Toonkanshaecheye, one of our native pastors.

Dr. Williamson, by correspondence with the Presby
terian Board, obtained an appropriation of several hun
dred dollars to send a native missionary to these Dakotas
in Canada. Solomon gladly accepted the undertaking,
and in the month of June, 1875, started for Manitoba
with Samuel Hopkins for a companion.

They were received with a great deal of joy by their
friends, who entreated them to stay, or come back again
if they left. But provisions were very scarce, and hard
to be obtained ; and hence they determined to return to
the Sisseton agency before winter. While in Manitoba
they had taught and preached the Gospel, and baptized

374

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 375

and received several persons to the fellowship of the
church. Solomon wrote, before he returned, "Indeed,
there is no food ; they have laid up nothing at all ; so
that, when winter comes, where they will obtain food,
and how they will live, no one knows. But I have already
found something of what I have been seeking, and very
reluctantly I turn away from the work."

Solomon and Samuel returned to Sisseton, but their
visit had created a larger desire for education and the
privileges of the Gospel. In the March following, Henok
Appearing Cloud wrote that he had taught school during
the winter, and conducted religious meetings, as he
" wanted the Word of God to grow." In much sim
plicity, he adds : " Although I am poor, and often starving,
I keep my heart just as though I were rich. When I
read again in the Sacred Book what Jesus, the Lord, lias
promised us, my heart is glad. I am thinking, if a minis
ter will only come this summer and stay with us a little
while, our hearts will rejoice. If he comes to stay with
us a long time, we will rejoice more. But as we are so
often in a starving condition, I know it will be hard for
any one to come."

Rev. John Black of Keldonan Manse, near Winnipeg,
heard of this visit of Solomon to Manitoba, and of the
desire of those Dakotas to have a missionary. He at
once became deeply interested in the movement, and
wrote to Dr. Williamson, at St. Peter, proposing that the
Presbyterian Missionary Society of Canada should take
upon themselves the charge of supporting Solomon as a
missionary among the Dakotas of the Dominion. But
when the matter was brought before the missionary com
mittee, they decided that the condition of their finances
would not allow them to add to their burdens at that

376 MARY AND I.

time. It was not, however, given up, and a year later the
arrangement was consummated. In the Word Carrier
for December, 1877, appeared this editorial : —

"The most important event occurring in our missionary work
during the month of October is the departure of Rev. Solomon
Toonkanshaecheye, with his family, for Fort Ellice, in the Domin
ion of Canada. This has been under advisement by the Presby
terian Foreign Missionary Society of Canada for two years past.
Rev. John Black of Keldonan Manse, Manitoba, has been working
for it. A year ago the funds of the society would not admit of
enlargement in their operations. This year their way has been
made clear, and the invitation has come to Solomon to be their
missionary among the Dakotas on the Assinaboine River. They
pay his expenses of removal, and promise him $600 salary.

" He has gone. Agent Hooper of Sisseton agency furnished
him with the necessary pass, and essentially aided him in his out
fit, and so we sent him off on the tenth day of October, invoking
God's blessing upon him and his by the way, and abundant success
for him in his prospective work. From the commencement of ne
gotiations in regard to this matter it has been of special interest
to Dr. T. S. Williamson of St. Peter. He has conducted the cor
respondence with Mr. Black. And now, while the good doctor
was lying nigh unto death, as he supposed, the arrangement has
gone into effect. If this prove to be his last work on earth (may
the good Lord cause otherwise), it will be a matter of joy on his
part that thus the Gospel is carried to regions beyond, by so good
and trustworthy a man as we have found Solomon to be all through
these years."

Thus was the work commenced. Dr. Williamson did
not pass from us then, but lived nearly two years longer,
and was cheered by the news of progress in this far-off
land. This being among our first efforts to do evangel
istic work by sending away our native ministers, our
hearts were much bound up in it. The church of Long
Hollow was reluctant to give up their pastor, and to me
it was giving up one whom I had learned to trust, and,

APPENDIX. MONOGEAPHS. 377

in some measure, to depend upon, among my native
pastors. But it was evidently God's call, and he has
already justified himself, even in our eyes. Solomon
found a people prepared of the Lord, and, in the summer
of 1878, he reports a church organized with thirteen
members, which they named Paha-cho-kam-ya — Middle
Hill — of which Henok was elected elder.

In the next winter Solomon and Henok made a mis
sionary tour of some weeks, of which we have the follow
ing report. The letter is dated " February 22, 1879, at
Middle Hill, near Fort Ellice, North-west Territory " : —

" This winter it seemed proper that I should visit the Dakotas
living in the extreme settlements, to proclaim to them the Word
of God. I first asked counsel of God, and prayed that he would
even now have mercy on the people of these end villages, and
send his Holy Spirit to cause them to listen to his Word. Then I
sent word to the people that I was coining.

" Then I started with Mr. Enoch, my elder. The first night we
came to three teepees of our own people at Large Lake, and held
a meeting with them. The next morning we started, and slept
four nights. On the fifth day we came to a large encampment on
Elm River. There were a great number of tents, which we visited,
and prayed with them, being well received. But as I came to
where there were two men, and prayed with them, I told them
about him whose name was Jesus — that he was the Helper Man,
because he was the Son of God. That he came to earth, made a
sacrifice of himself, and died, that he might reconcile all men to
God; that he made himself alive again; that, although men
have destroyed themselves before God, whosoever knows the
meaning of the name of Jesus, and fears for his own soul, and
prays, he shall find mercy, and be brought near to God. That is
the Name. And he is the Saviour of men, and so will be your
Saviour also, I said.

" Then one of them in a frightened way answered me: ' I sup
posed you were a Dakota, of those who live in cabins. It is not
proper that you should say these things. As for me, I do not want

378 MARY AND I.

them. Those who wish may follow in that way; but I will not.
You who hold such things should stay at home. What do you
come here for ? '

" Walking-nest then said: ' You are Cloudman's son, I sup
pose, and so you are my cousin. Cousin, when we first came to
this country there was a white minister who talked to us and said:
" Your hands are full of blood ; therefore, when your hands become
white, we will teach you." So he said, and when you brought a
book from the south, while they were looking at it, blood dropped
from above upon it; and behold, as the white minister said, 1
conclude we are not yet good. Therefore, my cousin, I am not
pleased with your coming,' he said.

" But there were only two men who talked in this way. We
left them and visited every house in the camp. Many may have
felt as those men did, but did not say it openly. The men said
they were glad, and welcomed us into their tents.

" The next day I came into a sick man's tent whose name was
Hepan, lying near to death. I talked with him, and prayed to
God for him. Then he told me how he longed to hear from his
friends down south, and mentioned over half a dozen names of his
relatives. A woman also, who was present, said : f I want to know
if my friends are yet living.'

" Then we continued our visiting from house to house. Some
times we found only children in the tent; sometimes there were
men and women, and I prayed with them and told them a word of
Jesus. So we came to the teepees in the valley. Then I met
Iron Buffalo. There we spent the Sabbath, and held meeting,
having twenty-three persons present. A chief man, whose name
is War-club-maker, called them together.

"Our meetings there being finished, we departed and came to
the Wahpaton village. They were making four sacred feasts. We
did not go into them. But, visiting other houses, we passed on
about five miles, when night came upon us. Still we went on to
the end of the settlement, where we held a meeting. The teepee
was small, but there I found a sick man who listened to the Word.
This was Chaskay, the son of Taoyatedoota. He said he was
going to die, and from what source he should hear any word of
prayer, or any comforting word of God, was not manifest. But
now he had heard these things, and was very glad, he said. This
way was the best upon earth, and he believed in it now. So,

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 379

while we remained there, he wanted us to pray with and for him,
he said.

" We spent one day there, and the second day we started home,
and came to Hunka's tent, and so proceeded homeward. When
we had reached the other end of the settlement, we learned that
the white ministers were to hold a meeting of presbytery. They
sent word to us to come, and so in the night, with my Hoonka-
yape, Mr. Enoch, I went back. They asked us to give an account
of our missionary journey among the Dakotas. And so we told
them where we had been and what we had done. Also, we gave
an account of things at Middle Hill, where we live. When we had
finished, they all clapped their hands. Then they said they wanted
to hear us sing a hymn of praise to God in Dakota. We sang
' Wakantanka Towaste,' and at the close they clapped their hands
again.

" Then two men arose, one after the other. The first said: 'I
have not expected to see such things so soon among the Dakotas.
But now I see great things, which I like very much.' The other
man spoke in the same way.

" Men and women had come together in their prayer-house, and
so there was a large assembly.

"Then the minister of that church arose and said: 'White
people, who have grown up hearing of this way of salvation, are
expected to believe in it, and I have been accustomed to rejoice in
the multiplication of the Christian church; but I rejoice more over
this work among the Dakotas.' "

Both of these men came home to watch and wait by
the sick-bed of dear children. Nancy Maza-chankoo-
win, — Iron Road Woman, — the daughter of Henok,
died April 28, 1879. She was thirteen years old, read
the Dakota Bible well, and was quite a singer in the
prayer assemblies. They say: "We all thought a great
deal of her; but now she too has gone up to sing in the
House of Jesus, because she was called."

From Middle Hill, near Fort Ellice in Manitoba, comes
a letter written on May 20 by our friend Solomon.

380 MARY AND I.

He reports seven members added by profession of faith
to his church in April, and ten children baptized.
There, as here, the season lias been a sickly one, and
many deaths have occurred. For three months he has
had sickness in his own family. His story is pathetic.
" Now," he says, " my son Abraham is dead. Seven
years ago, at Long Hollow, in the country of the Coteau
des Prairies, he was born on January 12, 1872. And on
the 23d of June following, at a communion season at
Good Will Church, he was baptized. When Mr. Riggs
poured the water on him, he was called Abraham. And
then in the country of the north, from Middle Hill, May
9, 1879, on that day, his soul was carried home to the
House of Jesus.

"Five months after he was born, I wanted to have
him baptized. I always remember the thought I had
about it. Soon after a child is born, it is proper to have
it baptized. I believed that baptism alone was not to be
trusted in, and when one is baptized now it is finished is
not thinkable. But in Luke 18 : 16, our Lord Jesus
says : ' Suffer the little children to come unto me ' ; and so
taking them to Jesus is good, since his heart is set on
permitting them to come. Therefore, I wanted this my
son to go to Jesus.

" And so from the time he could hear me speak, I
have endeavored to train him up in all gentleness and
obedience, in truth and in peace. Now, for two years in
this country he has been my little helper. When some
could not say their letters, he taught them. He also
taught them to pray. And when any were told to
repeat the commandments, and were ashamed to do so,
he repeated them first, for he remembered them all.
Hence, I was very much attached to him. But this last

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 381

winter lie was taken sick, and from the first it seemed
that he would not get well. But while he lived it was
possible to help him, and so we did to the extent of our
ability. He failed gradually. He was a long time sick.
But he was not afraid to die. He often prayed. When
he was dying, but quite conscious of everything that took
place, then he prayed, and we listened. He repeated the
prayer of the Lord Jesus audibly to the end. That was
the last voice we heard from him. Perhaps when our
time comes, and they come for us to climb up to the hill
of the mountain of Jehovah, then we think we shall hear
his new voice. Therefore, although we are sad, we do
not cry immoderately."

That was a beautiful child-life, and a beautiful child-
death. Who shall say there are not now Dakota chil
dren in heaven? To have beemthe means, under God,
of opening in this -desert such a well of faith and salva
tion is quite a sufficient reward for a lifetime of work.

S. R. R.

DR. T. S. WILLIAMSON.

THE father of the Dakota Mission has gone. Thomas
Smith Williamson died at his residence in St. Peter,
Minn., on Tuesday, the 24th of June, 1879, in the
eightieth year of his life. My own acquaintance with
this life-long friend and companion in work commenced
when I was yet a boy, just fifty years ago in July. We
were new-comers in the town of Ripley, Ohio, where Dr.
Williamson was then a^ractising physician of some five
years' standing. My mother was taken sick and died.
In her sick-chamber our acquaintance commenced, which
has continued unbroken for half a century.

The silver wedding of the Dakota Mission was cele
brated at Hazelwood, in the summer of 1860. Dr.
Williamson himself furnished a sketch of his life and
ancestry for that occasion which has never been pub
lished. From this document, as well as from articles
written by his son, Prof. Andrew Woods Williamson,
and published in the St. Peter Tribune and the Herald
and Presbyter, much of this life-sketch will be taken.

Thomas Smith Williamson, M.D., was the son of Rev.
William Williamson and Mary Smith, and was born in
Union District, South Carolina, in March, 1800.

William Williamson commenced classical studies when
quite young ; but the school he attended was broken up
by the appointment of the teacher as an officer in the

382

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 383

Revolutionary army. When about sixteen years of age,
while on a visit to an uncle's on the head-waters of the
Kanawha, in Virginia, several families in the neighbor
hood were taken captive by the Indians, and he joined
a company of volunteers which was raised to go in
pursuit. After more than a week's chase, they were
entirely successful, and lost only one of their own
number.

When not yet eighteen years old, he was drafted into
the North Carolina militia, and accompanied Gates in
his unfortunate expedition through the Carolinas. After
the war was over and the family had removed to South
Carolina, William resumed his studies and was graduated
at Hampton Sidney College — studied theology, and was
ordained pastor of Fair Forest Church, in April, 1793.

The grandfather of Thomas Smith Williamson was
Thomas Williamson, and his grandmother's maiden
name was Ann Newton, a distant relative of Sir Isaac
and Rev. John Newton. They were both raised in
Pennsylvania, but removed first to Virginia and then
to the Carolinas, where they became the owners of
slaves, the most of whom were purchased at their own
request to keep them from falling into the hands of hard
masters.

Thus Rev. William Williamson was born into the
condition of slaveholder. By both his first and second
marriage also, he became the owner of others, which,
by the laws of South Carolina, would have been the
property of his children. For the purpose of giving
them their liberty, he removed, in 1805, from South
Carolina to Adams County, Ohio. Before her marriage,
Mary Smith had taught a number of the young negroes
to read. And of their descendants quite a number are

384 MARY AND I.

now in Ohio. It should be remembered that the Smiths
and Williamsons of the eighteenth century thought it
right, under the circumstances in which they were, to
buy and hold slaves, but not right to sell them. They
never sold any.

Thomas Smith Williamson inherited from his father
a love for the study of God's Word, and a practical
sympathy for the down-trodden and oppressed, which
were ever the distinguishing characteristics of his life.
He was also blessed with a godly mother and with five
earnest-working Christian sisters, four of whom were
older than himself. He was converted during his stay
at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pa., where he grad
uated in 1820. Soon after, he began reading medicine
with his brother-in-law, Dr. William Wilson of West
Union, Ohio, and, after a very full course of reading,
considerable practical experience, and one course of
lectures at Cincinnati, Ohio, completed his medical
education at Yale, where he graduated in medicine in
1824. He settled at Ripley, Ohio, where he soon
acquired an extensive practice, and April 10, 1827, was
united in marriage with Margaret Poage, daughter of
Col. James Poage, proprietor of the town. Perhaps no
man was ever more blessed with a helpmeet more
adapted to his wants than this lovely, quiet, systematic,
cheerful, Christian wife, who for forty-five years of
perfect harmony encouraged him in his labors.

They thought themselves happily settled for life in
their pleasant home, but God had better things in store
for them. His Spirit began whispering in their ears the
Macedonian cry. At first, they excused themselves on
account of their little ones. They felt they could not
take them among the Indians, that they owed a duty to

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS.

them. They hesitated. God removed this obstacle in
his own way — by taking the little ones home to him
self. As this was a great trial, so was it a great blessing
to these parents. This was one of God's means of so
strengthening their faith that, having once decided to
go, neither of them ever after for one moment regretted
the decision, doubted that they were called of God to
this work, or feared that their life-work would prove a
failure.

In the spring of 1833, Dr. Williamson placed himself
under the care of the Chillicothe Presbytery, and com
menced the study of theology. In August of that year
he removed with his family to Walnut Hills, and con
nected himself with Lane Seminary. In April, 1834, in
the First Presbyterian Church of Red Oak, he was
licensed to preach by the Chillicothe Presbytery.

Previous to his licensure, he had received from the
American Board an appointment to proceed on an
exploring tour among the Indians of the Upper Missis
sippi, with special reference to the Sacs and Foxes, but
to collect what information he could in regard to the
Sioux, Winnebagoes, and other Indians. Starting on
this tour about the last of April, he went as far as Fort
Snelling, and returned to Ohio in August. At Rock
Island he met with some of the Sacs and Foxes, and at
Prairie du Chien he first saw Dakotas, among others
Mr. Joseph Renville of Lr.o-qui-parle. On the 18th of
September he was ordaineJ as a missionary by the
Chillicothe Presbytery, in Union Church, Ross County,
Ohio.

A few months afterward he received his appointment
as a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. to the Dakotas ;
and on the first day of April, 1835, Dr. Williamson,

386 MARY AND I.

with his wife and one child, accompanied by Miss Sarah
Ponge, Mrs. Williamson's sister, who afterward became
Mrs. Gideon H. Pond, and Alexander G. Huggins and
i'amily, left Ripley, Ohio, and on the 16th of May they
arrived at Fort Snelling. At this time, the only white
people in Minnesota, then a part of the North-west
Territory, were those connected with the military post
at Fort Snelling, the only post-office within the present
limits of the State ; those connected with the fur-trade,
except Hon. H. H. Sibley, were chiefly Canadian French,
ignorant of the English language; and Messrs. Gideon
H. and Samuel W. Pond, who came on their own account
as lay teachers of Christ to the Indians in 1834.

While stopping there for a few weeks, Dr. Williamson
presided at the organization, on the 12th of June, of the
First Presbyterian Church — the first Christian church
organized within the present limits of Minnesota. This
was within the garrison at Fort Snelling, and consisted
of twenty-two members, chiefly the result of the labors
of Major Loomis among the soldiers.

Having concluded to accompany Mr. Joseph Renville,
Dr. Williamson's party embarked on the fur company's
Mackinaw boat on the 22d of June; reached Traverse
des Sioux on the 30th, where they took wagons and
arrived at Lac-qui-parle on the 9th of July. There, on
the north side of the Minnesota River, and in sight of
the " Lake that speaks," they established themselves as
teachers of the religion of Jesus.

Of the " Life and Labors " pressed into the next forty-
four years, only the most meager outline can be given
in this article. It is now almost two round centuries
since Hennepin and Du Luth met in the camps and
villages of the Sioux on the Upper Mississippi. Then,

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 387

as since, they were recognized as the largest and most
warlike tribe of Indians on the continent. Until Dr.
Williamson and his associates went among them, there
does not appear to have been any effort made to civilize
and Christianize them. With the exception of a few
hundred words gathered by army officers and others, the
Dakota language was unwritten. This was to be learned
— mastered, which was found to be no small undertaking,
especially to one who had attained the age of thirty-five
years. While men of less energy and pluck would have
knocked off or been content to work as best they could
through an interpreter, Dr. Williamson persevered, and
in less than two years was preaching Christ to them in
the language in which they were born. He never spoke
it easily nor just like an Indian, but he was readily
understood by those who were accustomed to hear him.

It was by a divine guidance that the station at Lac-qui-
parle was commenced. The Indians there were very poor
in this world's good, not more than a half-dozen horses be
ing owned in a village of 400 people. They were far in the
interior, and received no annuities from the government.
Thus they were in a condition to be helped in many ways
by the mission. Under its influence and by its help,
their corn-patches were enlarged and their agriculture
improved. Dr. Williamson also found abundant opportu
nities to practise medicine among them. Not that they
gave up their pow-wows and conjuring ; but many fami
lies were found quite willing that the white Pay-zhe-hoo-
ta-we-chash-ta (Grass Root Man) should try his skill with
the rest. For more than a quarter of a century his medi
cal aid went hand in hand with the preaching of the
Gospel. By the helpfulness of the rnissson in various
ways, a certain amount of confidence was secured. And

388 MARY AND I.

through the influence of Mr. Renville, a few men, but
especially the women, gathered to hear the good news of
salvation.

Here they were rejoiced to see the Word taking effect
early. In less than a year after their arrival, Dr. Will
iamson organized a native church, which, in the autumn
of 1837, when I joined the mission force at Lac-qui-parle,
counted seven Dakotas. Five years after the number
received from the beginning had been forty-nine. This
was a very successful commencement.

But in the meantime the war-prophets and the so-called
medicine-men were becoming suspicious of the new
religion. They began to understand that the religion of
Christ antagonized their own ancestral faith, and so they
organized opposition. The children were forbidden to
attend the mission school ; Dakota soldiers were stationed
along the paths, and the women's blankets were cut up
when they attempted to go to church. Year after year
the mission cattle were killed and eaten. At one time,
Dr. Williamson was under the necessity of hitching
up milch-cows to haul his wood — the only animals left
him.

These were dark, discouraging years — very trying to
the native church members, as well as to the missionaries.
As I look back upon them, I can but admire the indomi
table courage and perseverance of Dr. Williamson. My
own heart would, I think, have sometimes failed me if it
had not been for the "hold on and hold out unto the
end " of my earthly friend. .

As Mr. Renville could only interpret between the Da
kotas and French, Dr. Williamson applied himself to
learning the latter language. Through this a beginning
was made in the translation of the Scriptures into the

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS.

Dakota. Late in the fall of 1839 the Gospel of Mark and
some other small portions were ready to be printed, and
Dr. Williamson went with his family to Ohio, where he
spent the winter. The next printing of portions of the
Bible was done in 1842-43, when Dr. Williamson had
completed a translation of the book of Genesis. We had
MOW commenced to translate from the Hebrew and Greek,
.'his was continued through all the years of his mission
ary life. So far as I can remember, there was no arrange
ment of wrork between the doctor and myself, but while
I commenced the New Testament, and, having completed
that, turned to the Psalms, and, having finished to the
end of Malachi, made some steps backward through Job,
Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra, he, commencing with
Genesis, closed his work, in the last months of his life,
with Second Chronicles, having taken in also the book of
Proverbs.

Before leaving the subject of Bible translation, let me
bear testimony to the uniform kindness and courtesy
which Dr. Williamson extended to me, through all this
work of more than forty years. It could hardly be said
of either of us that we were very yielding. The doctor
was a man of positive opinions, and there were abundant
opportunities in prosecuting our joint work for differences
of judgment. But, while we freely criticised each the
other's work, we freely yielded to each other the right of
ultimate decision.

In the autumn of 1846, Dr. Williamson received an in
vitation, through the agent at Fort Snelling, to establish
a mission at Little Crow's Village, a few miles below
where St. Paul has grown up, and he at once accepted it,
gathering from it that the Lord had a work for him to do
there. And indeed he had. During the five or six years

390 MAKY AND I.

he remained there, a small Dakota church was gathered,
and an opportunity was afforded him to exert a positive
Christian influence on the white people then gathering
into the capital of Minnesota. Dr. Williamson preached
the first sermon there.

When, after the treaties of 1851, the Indians of the
Mississippi were removed, he removed with them — or,
rather, went before them, and commenced his last station
at Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-zee, Yellow Medicine. There he and
his family had further opportunities " to glory in tribu
lations." The first winter was one of unusual severity,
and they came near starving. But here the Lord blessed
them, and permitted them to see a native church grow
up, as well as at Hazelwood, the other mission station
near by. It was during the next ten years that the seeds
of civilization and Christianity took root, and grew into
a fruitage, which, in some good manner, bore up under
the storm of the outbreak in 1862, and resulted in a great
harvest afterward.

Twenty-seven years of labor among the Dakotas were
past. The results had been encouraging — gratifying.
Dr. Williamson's eldest son, Rev. John P. Williamson,
born into the missionary kingdom, had recently come
from Lane Seminary, and joined our missionary forces.
But suddenly our work seemed to be dashed in pieces.
The whirlwind of the outbreak swept over our mission.
Our houses and churches were burned with fire. The
members of our native churches — where were they ?
Would there ever be a gathering again ? But nothing
could discourage Dr. Williamson, for he trusted not in
an arm of flesh, but in the all-powerful arm of God. He
found that he at least had the consolation of knowing
that all the Christian Indians had continued, at the risk

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 391

of their own lives, steadfast friends of the whites, that
they had succeeded in saving more than their own
number of white people, and that those of them who were
unjustly imprisoned spent much of the time in laboring
for the conversion of the heathen imprisoned with
them.

It required just such a political and moral revolution
as this to break the bonds of heathenism, in which these
Dakotas were held. It seems also to have required the
manifest endurance of privations, and the unselfish devo
tion of Dr. Williamson and others to them in this time
of trouble, to fully satisfy their suspicious hearts that we
did not seek theirs but them. The winter of 1862-63,
Dr. Williamson, having located his family at St. Peter,
usually walked up every Saturday to Mankato, to preach
the Gospel to the 400 men in prison. " That," said a
young man, " satisfied us that you were really our
friends." Sometimes it seems strange that it required so
much to convince them ! History scarcely furnishes a
more remarkable instance of divine power on human
hearts than was witnessed in that prison. For a partic
ular account of this the reader is referred to the mono
graph on Rev. G. H. Pond.

Ever since the outbreak, Dr. Williamson has made a
home for his family in the town of St. Peter and its
vicinity. For two years of the three in which the con
demned Dakotas were imprisoned at Davenport, Iowa, he
gave his time and strength chiefly to ministering to their
spiritual needs. Education never progressed so rapidly
among them as during these years. They almost all
learned to read and write their own language; and spent
much of their time in singing hymns of praise, in prayer,
and in reading the Bible. They were enrolled in classes,

392 MARY AND I.

and each class placed under the special teaching of an
elder. This gave them something like a Methodist or
ganization, but it was found essential to a proper watch
and care. This experience in the prison and elsewhere
made it more and more manifest that, to carry forward
the work of evangelization among this people, we must
make large use of our native talent.

The original Dakota presbytery was organized at
Lac-qui-parle in the first days of October, 1844. Dr.
Williamson and myself brought our letters from the pres
bytery of Ripley, Ohio, and Samuel W. Pond brought his
from an Association in Connecticut. The bounds of this
presbytery were not accurately defined, and so for years
it absorbed all the ministers of the Gospel of the Pres
byterian and Congregational orders who came into the
Minnesota country. By and by the presbyteries of St.
Paul and Minnesota were organized ; but the Dakota
presbytery still covered the country of the Minnesota
River.

At a meeting of this presbytery at Mankato in the
spring of 1865, when our first Dakota preacher, Rev.
John B. Renville, was licensed, an incident took place
which illustrates the meekness and magnanimity of Dr.
Williamson's character. On its own adjournment the
presbytery had convened and was opened with a sermon
by Dr. Williamson, in the evening, in the Presbyterian
church. He took occasion to present the subject of our
duties to the down-trodden races, the African and the
Indian. Doubtless some who heard the discourse did
not approve of it. But no exceptions would have been
taken if the Jewett family, out a few miles from the
town, had not been killed that night by a Sioux war-
party. Men were so unreasonable as to claim that the

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 393

preaching and the preacher had some kind of casual
relation with the killing. The next day, Mankato was
in a ferment. An indignation meeting was held, and a
committee of citizens was sent to the Presbyterian
church to require Dr. Williamson to leave their town.
Some of the members of the presbytery were indignant
at this demand ; but the good doctor chose to retire to
his home at St. Peter, assuring the excited and unreason
able men of Mankato that he could have had no knowl
edge of the presence of the war-party, and certainly had
no sympathy with their wicked work.

In years after this, I traveled hundreds of miles, often
alone with Dr. Williamson, and while we conversed
freely of all our experiences, and of the way God had
led us, I do not remember that I ever heard him refer to
this ill treatment of the people of Mankato. Like his
Master, he had learned obedience by the things he suf
fered.

Never brilliant, he was yet, by his capacity for long-
continued, severe exertion, and by systematic, persever
ing industry, enabled to accomplish an almost incredible
amount of labor. His life was a grand one, made so by
his indomitable perseverance in the line of lifting up the
poor and those who had no helper.

From the beginning he had an unshaken faith in his
work. He fully believed in the ability of the Indians to
become civilized and Christianized. He had an equally
strong arid abiding faith in the power of the Gospel to
elevate and save even them. Then add to these his per
sonal conviction that God had, by special providences,
called him to this work, and we have a threefold cord of
faith, that was not easily broken.

No one who knew him ever doubted that Dr. William-

394 MARY AND I.

son was a true friend of the red man. And he succeeded
wonderfully in making this impression upon the Indians
themselves. They recognized, and, of late years, often
spoke of, his life-long service for them. With a class of
white men, this was the head and front of his offending,
that, in their judgment, he could see only one side —
that he was always the apologist of the Indians — that
in the massacres of the border in 1862, when others
believed and asserted that a thousand or fifteen hundred
whites were killed, Dr. Williamson could only count
three or four hundred. He was honest in his beliefs and
honest in his apologies. He felt that necessity was laid
upon him to "open his mouth for the dumb." They
could not defend themselves, and they have had very few
defenders among white people.

In the summer of 1866, after the release of the Dakota
prisoners at Davenport, Dr. Williamson and I took with
us Rev. John B. Renville, and journeyed up through
Minnesota and across Dakota to the Missouri River, and
into the eastern corner of Nebraska. On our way, we
spent some time at the head of the Coteau, preaching
and administering the ordinances of the Gospel to our
old church members, and gathering in a multitude of
new converts, ordaining elders over them, and licensing
two of the best qualified to preach the Gospel. When
we reached the Niobrara, we found the Christians of the
prison at Davenport and the Christians of the camp
at Crow Creek now united; and they desired to be
consolidated into one church of more than 400 mem
bers. We helped them to select their religious teachers,
which they did from the men who had been in prison.
So mightily had the Word of God prevailed among
them that almost the entire adult community professed

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 395

to be Christians. Rev. John P. Williamson was there in
charge of the work.

For four successive summers, it was our privilege to
travel together in this work of visiting and reconstruct
ing these Dakota Christian communities. We also
extended our visits to the villages of the wild Teeton
Sioux along the Missouri River. Dr. Williamson claimed
that Indians must be more honest than white people;
for he always took with him an old trunk without lock
or key, and in all these journeys he did not lose from a
thread to a shoe-string.

For thirty-six years the doctor was a missionary of the
American Board. But after the union of the assemblies,
and the transfer of the funds contributed by the New
School supporters of that board to the Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions, the question of a change of
our relations was thoughtfully considered and fully dis
cussed. He was too strong a Presbyterian not to have
decided convictions on that subject. But there were, as
we considered it, substantial reasons why we could not
go over as an entire mission. And so we agreed to divide,
Dr. Williamson and his son, Rev. John P. Williamson,
transferring themselves to the Presbyterian Board, while
my boys and myself remained as we were. The divis
ion made no disturbance in our mutual confidence, and
no change in the methods of our common work. Rather
have the bonds of our union been drawn more closely
together, during the past eight years, by an annual con
ference of all our Dakota pastors and elders and Sabbath-
school workers. This has gathered and again distrib
uted the enthusiasm of the churches; and has become
the director of the native missionary forces. With one
exception, Dr. Williamson was able to attend all these

396 MARY AND I.

annual convocations, and added very much to their
interest.

While the synod of Minnesota was holding its sessions
in St. Paul in October, 1877, the good doctor was lying
at the point of death, as was supposed, with pneumonia.
Farewell words passed between him and the synod. But
liis work was not then done, and the Lord raised him up
to complete it. At the next meeting of the synod, he
presented a discourse on Rev. G. H. Pond; and during
the winter following he finished his part of the Dakota
Bible. Then his work appeared to be done, and he de
clined almost from that day onward.

On my way up to the land of the Dakotas, in the
middle of May, 1879, I stopped over a day with my
old friend. He was very feeble, but still able to walk
out, and to sit up a good part of the day. We talked
of many things. He then expressed the hope that as
the warm weather came on he might rally, as he had
done in former years. But the undertone was that, as
the great work of giving the Bible to the Dakotas in
their own language was completed, there was not much
left for him to do here. He remarked that, during the
last forty-four years, he had built several houses, all of
which had either gone to pieces, or were looking old, and
would not remain long after he was gone. But the
building up of human souls that he had been permitted
to work for, and which, by the grace of God, he had
seen coming up into a new life, through the influence of
the Word and the power of the Holy Ghost, he confi
dently believed would remain.

When I spoke of the near prospect of his dissolution
to his Dakota friends, there arose in all the churches a
(jreat prayer cry for his recovery. This was reported to

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 397

him, and he sent back this message, by the hand of his
son Andrew : " Tell the Indians that father thanks them
very much for their prayers, and hopes they will be
blessed both to his good and theirs. But he does not
wish them to pray that his life here may be prolonged,
for he longs to depart and be with Christ." And the
testimony of Rev. G. F. McAfee, pastor of the Presby
terian church in St. Peter, who often visited and prayed
with him in his last days, is to the same effect: "He
absolutely forbade me to pray that he might recover, but
that he might depart in peace."

And so his longing was answered. He died on Tues
day, June 24, 1879, in the morning watch.

He had no ecstasies, but he looked into the future
world with a firm and abiding faith in Him whom, not
having seen, he loved. Of his last days, John P. Will
iamson writes thus : —

"He seemed to be tired out in body and. mind, with as much
disinclination to talk as to move, and apparently as much from
the labor of collecting bis mind as the difficulty of articulation.
1 think he talked very little from the time I was here going home
from General Assembly (June 1) till his death, and for some time
was perhaps unconscious.

" You may know that father had a special distaste for what are
called death-bed experiences. Still, we thought that perhaps, at
the last, when the bodily pains ceased, there might be a little lin
gering sunshine from the inner man, but such was not the case;
and perhaps it was most fitting that he should die as he had
lived, with no exalted feelings or bright imagery of the future,
but a stern faith, which gives hope and peace in the deepest
waters."

He lived to see among the Dakotas ten native ordained
Presbyterian ministers and about 800 church members,

398 MARY AND I.

besides a large number of Episcopalians, a success prob
ably much beyond his early anticipations.

On the farther shore he has joined the multitude that
have gone before. Of his own family there are the three
who went up in infancy. Next, Smith Burgess, a manly
Christian boy, was taken away very suddenly. Then
Lizzie Hunter went in the prime of womanhood. The
mother followed, a woman of quiet and beautiful life.
And then the sainted Nannie went up to put on white
robes. Besides these of his family, a multitude of Dako-
tas are there, who will call him father. I think they
have gathered around him and sung, under the trees by
the river, one of his first Dakota hymns : —

" Jehowa Mayooha, nimayakiye,
Nitowashta iwadowan."

" Jehovah, my Master, thou hast saved me,
I sing of thy goodness."

My friend — my long-life friend — my companion in
tribulation and in the patience of work, I almost envy
thee \hy first translation.

S. R. R.

A MEMORIAL.

ELIZA HUGGINS ; NANNIE WILLIAMSON ; JULIA LA
FRAMBOISE.

ELIZA W. HUGGINS.

THE Lord came to his garden, and gathered three
fair flowers, which now bloom in the city of our God.
We, who knew their beauty, come to lay our loving re
membrances upon their graves.

Eliza Wilson Huggins was the third child of Alexan
der G. and Lydia Huggins. She was born March 7,
1837, and died June 22, 1873.

She early gave herself to Jesus, and her lovely life was
like a strain of sacred music, albeit its years of suffering
brought out chords of minor harmony.

This young girl, in the dawn of womanhood, with gen
tle step and loving voice, was a revelation to us who
were younger than she. Huguenot blood ran swiftly in
her veins, and grief and joy were keen realities to her
sensitive soul. But she quieted herself as a child before
the Lord, and he gave her the ornament which is with
out price. Though she wist not, her face shone, and we,
remembering, know that she had been with Jesus.

Her sister, Mrs. Holtsclaw, writes : " We are of Hugue
not descent on our father's side. Our great-great-grand
father was born at sea in the flight from France to Eng-

400 MAKY AND I.

land. Two brothers (in that generation or the one
following) came to America, one settling in North Caro
lina, the other in New England. Our grandfather left
North Carolina when father was a small boy, because he
thought slavery wrong, and did not wish his children
exposed to its influences.

"Grandmother Huggins was a sister of Rev. James
Gilliland of Red Oak, Ohio. She was a very earnest
Christian, and often prayed that her descendants, to the
latest generation, might be honest, humble followers of
Jesus.

" Eliza was converted, and united with the church in
Felicity, Ohio, under the pastorate of Rev. Smith Poage.
She was, I think, about twelve years of age."

She was a most loving daughter, sister, and friend,
because she had given herself unreservedly to Him who
yearns to be more than friend, mother, or brother to us
all. When heavy bereavements came upon the family,
Jesus kept their hearts from breaking. The dear father
went the way of all the earth. Then a brother-in-law,
who was a brother indeed ; then the elder brother, tried
and true, in an instant of time, speeds home to heaven ;
and again a younger brother, in his bright youth ;
these three were the family's offering upon the altar of
freedom. A costly offering! A heavy price paid!
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."

For seven years Miss Huggins taught school as con
tinuously as her health permitted. Her methods as a
teacher were followed by peculiar success. She loved
children, and had a most earnest desire to help them up
to all that is best and wisest in life. Children know by
instinct whose is the firm yet loving hand stretched out
to lead them in the paths of pleasantness and peace.

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 401

Some of this time she taught in the mission school. Her
sister says: —

" I cannot write of her long sickness, her intense suf
fering, her patient waiting to see what the Lord had in
store for her; all this is too painful for me. St. An
thony, where she first came with such bright hopes of
finding health, was the place from which she went to her
long rest. It was the place where she found cure.

"The Dakota text-book, which she and Nannie pre
pared, was a labor of much thought and prayer. It was
not published until after she had gone home."

Mignonette and sweet violets may well be emblem
flowers for this lovely sister. Would that I might strew
them on her grave, in the early summer-time, as a fare
well till we meet again.

NANCY JANE WILLIAMSON.

BY M. E. M.

WHEN an army marches on under fire, and one after
another falls by the way, the ranks close up that there
may ever be an unbroken front before the foe. So in
life's battle, as one by one drops out of the ranks, we
who are left must needs march on. Yet, if we stop a lit
tle to think and talk of the ones gone, it may help us as
we press forward. Then, to-day let us bring to mind
something of the life of a sister departed.

Nannie J. Williamson was born at Lac-qui-parle, Minn.,
on the 28th of July, 1840. From her birth she was
afflicted with disease of the spine, so that she was

402 MARY AND I.

almost two years old before she walked at all, and then
her ankles bent and had to be bound in splints. " Aunt
Jane " mentions that Nannie was in her fourth year
when she first saw her, and at that time, when the chil
dren went out to play, her brother John either carried her
or drew her in a little wagon, to save her the fatigue of
walking. So she must have truly borne the yoke in her
youth. That the burden was not lifted as the years
went by, we may judge from the facts that when away
at school, both in Galesburg, 111., and Oxford, Ohio, she
was under the care of a physician ; and she almost al
ways studied her lessons lying on her back.

Though her days were stretched out to her 38th year,
her body never fully ripened into womanhood, and her
heart never lost the sweetness and simplicity of the
child. It was not so with her mind. Overleaping the
body, with a firm and strong grasp, it took up every
object of thought, and filled its storehouse of knowledge.

"The date of her conversion is not known. She
loved Jesus from a child."

In the fall of 1854 our family moved to within two miles
of Dr. Williamson's new station of Pay-zhe-hoo-ta-zee, or
Yellow Medicine. From that time we were intimately
associated, and many delightful memories are connected
with those days. In September, 1857, Nannie went to
the W. F. Seminary at Oxford, Ohio. She made many
friends among her school-mates, and all respected her for
her consistent character, her faithfulness in her studies,
and her earnestness in seeking to bring others to Christ.
One with more thankful humility never lived. She was
always so very grateful for the least favor or kindness
done her, and seemed ever to bear them in mind. She
was exceedingly thoughtful for other people, never

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 403

seemed to think evil of any one, and never failed to
find kindly excuses for one's conduct if excuses were pos
sible. After the burning of the seminary building, the
senior class, of which Nannie was one, finished their
studies in a house secured for that purpose. Then fol
lowed the sorrowful days of '62, that broke up so many
homes, ours among others. Some time after, Nannie
wrote this : " It is a little more than a year since we left
our dear old homes. I wonder if our paths will ever lie
so near together again as they have in times past. Who
can tell ? But though we may seem to be far apart, we
trust we are journeying to the same place, and we shall
meet there"

During the months that Nannie's mother waited to be
released from earthly suffering, the daughter spared none
of lier strength to do what she could for the faithful,
patient mother. After there was nothing more to do on
earth for that mother, then indeed Nannie felt the effects
of the long strain on body and mind. Even then her
nights were painful and unresting. But, after recruiting
a little, she entered upon the work to which her thoughts
had often turned, that of uplifting the Dakota women
and children. In 1873, "she joined her brother, Rev. J.
P. Williamson, in missionary labor, at Yankton agency,
Dakota Territory, under the Presbyterian Board of For
eign Missions, and continued in it until her death, No
vember 18, 1877."

"Her knowledge of the Scriptures was such that the
minister scarcely needed any other concordance when she
was by, and during her last illness every conversation
was accompanied with Scripture quotations.

"Notwithstanding her physical weakness, she taught
school and did much other work ; and, as all was conse-

404 MARY AND I.

crated to the Lord, we are sure she has much fruit in
glory. Many in the Sabbath-schools of Traverse and St.
Peter received lessons from her, whose impression will
last to eternity."

In the spring of 1876, she went to Ohio on the occasion
of a reunion of the first five graduating classes of the W.
F. Seminary, Oxford, Ohio. She desired with great desire
to meet her class-mates, and the beloved principal, Miss
Helen Peabody ; and also to visit relatives, among them
two aged aunts, one of whom crossed over to the other
side a little before her. She took great delight in her
visit, and yet her nights were wearisome, and she was
probably not entirely comfortable at any time. But she
did not complain.

On her last visit home her face bore the impress of
great suffering. It was with difficulty she could raise
either hand to her head, and could only sleep with her
arms supported on pillows. They would fain have kept
her at home, but she longed to do what she could as long
as she could. So she went back, taught in the school,
visited the sick, read from the Bible in the tents, and
prayed. In her last illness some of these women came
and prayed with her, and so comforted her greatly. She
did not forget her brother's children, in her anxiety for
the heathen around them, and they will long remember
Aunt Nannie's prayerful instructions.

With so little strength as she had, it was not strange
that, when fever prostrated her, she could not rally again.
So she lay for nearly eight weeks, suffering much, but
trusting much also. At times she hoped to be able to
work again for the women, if the Lord willed. But when
she knew that her earthly life was nearly ended, she sent
this message to her aunt : " Do not grieve, dear aunt.

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 405

Though I had desired to do much for these women and
girls, the prospect of heaven is very sweet." For a while
she had said now and then : " I wonder how long I shall
have to lie here and wait," but one day she remarked, " I
do not feel at all troubled now about how long I may
have to wait : Jesus has taken that all away." When any
one came in to see her, she said a few words, and as the
school children were gathered around her one day she
talked to them a little while for the last time. Two days
before her death, she dictated a letter to her father, who
had himself been very near death's door, but was recover
ing : " I do rejoice that God has restored you to health
again. I trust that years of usefulness and happiness may
still be yours. I am gaining both in appetite and strength.
I feel a good deal better." But the night that followed
was a sleepless one, and the next day she suffered greatly.
About dark her brother said to her, " You have suffered
a great deal to-day." She answered, "Yes, but the worst
is over now." He said, "Jesus will send for you," and
she replied, " Yes, I think he will, for he says, ' I will
that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am.' "

She spoke now and then to different ones, a word or
two, asked them to read some Scripture texts from the
" Silent Comforter " that hung where she could always
see it, wanted it to be turned over, and, with her face to
the wall, she seemed to go to sleep. She so continued
through the night, her breath growing fainter and fainter.
And at day-break on the morning of the Sabbath the
other life began. " That is the substance, this the shadow /
that the reality, this the dream"

406 MAEY AND I.

JULIA LA FRAMBOISE.

JULIA A. LA FRAMBOISE was the daughter of a French
trader and of a Dakota mother. When nine years of
age, her father placed her in Mr. Huggins' family. In
that Christian home she learned to love her Saviour, and,
one year later, covenanted forever to be his. Her father
was a Catholic, and would have preferred that his daugh
ter remain in that church, but allowed her to choose for
herself. His affection for her and hers for him was very
strong.

After her father's death, Julia determined to use her
property in obtaining an education. She spent two years
in the mission school at Hazelwood, then going to the W.
F. Seminary, Oxford, Ohio, and for a short time to
Painesville, Ohio, and afterward to Rockford, 111. Hav
ing taken a full course of study there, she returned to
Minnesota as a teacher.

Our mother had a warm affection for Julia, as indeed
for each of the others of whom we write. Julia called
our house one of her homes, and, whenever with us, she
took a daughter's share in the love and labor of the house
hold.

A story of my mother's childhood illustrates the spirit
of benevolence by which she influenced Miss La Fram
boise among others. Her surviving sister, Mrs. Lucretia
S. Cooley, writes : —

" When the first missionaries from the vicinity of my
early home, Mr. and Mrs. Richards of Plainfield, went to
the Sandwich Islands, sister Mary was a little girl. She
was deeply impressed by the story of the wants of the
children, as portrayed by Mr. Richards, and expressed a

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 407

strong desire to accompany him. She had just learned to
sew quite nicely. Looking up to mother, she said, ' I could
teach the little girls to sew.' Here was the missionary
spirit. Those who go to the Indians, to the islands of
the sea, to Africa, must needs be ready to teach all things,
doing it as to the Lord."

When the call to teach among her own people came,
Miss La Framboise gladly embraced the opportunity,
laboring for them in season and out of season for two
short years. Her health failing, she was taken to her old
home in Minnesota, where she died, September 20, 1871,
but twenty-eight years of age.

Mrs. Holtsclaw, one of her girlhood friends, went to
her in that last sickness. She wrote: "I was with her
when she died. It was beautiful to see the steady care
and gentle devotion of her step-mother, of the rest of the
family, and of the neighbors."

Miss La Framboise was thoroughly educated, thorough
ly the lady ; always loyal to her people, even when they
were most hated and despised ; always generous in her
deeds and words; always to be depended upon.

Oh, could we but have kept her to work many years
for the ennobling and Christianizing of the Dakotas !

Bring lilies of the prairie for this grand-daughter of a
chieftain — ay, more, this daughter of the King !

I. R. W.

THE FAMILY REUNION.— 1879.

EIGHTEEN years had gone by since the family were
all together on mission ground. That was in the sum
mer of 1861. In the summer of 1858, Alfred had grad
uated at Knox College, Illinois; and Isabella returned
with him from the Western Female Seminary, Ohio.
They gladly arrived at home, in borrowed clothes, having
trod together " the burning deck " of a Mississippi River
steamboat. All were together then. That fall, Martha
went to the Western Female Seminary, and was there
when the school building was burned in 1860. After
that she came home, and Isabella went back to graduate.
In the meantime, Alfred had become a member of the
Theological Seminary of Chicago. And so it happened
that all were not at home again together until the sum
mer of 1861. Then came the Sioux outbreak, and the
breaking-up of the mission home. Though a new home
was made at St. Anthony, and then at Beloit, it never
came to pass that all were together at any one time.

Then new home centres grew up. Alfred was married
in June, 1863. Isabella was married in February, 1866,
and very soon sailed for China. Martha was married in
December of the same year, and went to live in Minne
sota. The dear mother went to the Upper Home in
March, 1869. Alfred moved to the mission field at San-
tee Agency, Nebraska, in June, 1870. Anna was married

408

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 409

in October of the same year and moved to Iowa. While
Martha, the same autumn, removed to open the Mission
ary Home at the Sisseton Agency. In May, 1872, a new
mother came in, to keep the hearthstone bright at the
Beloit home. In February of 1872, Thomas went to
Fort Sully to commence a new station, and was married
in December of the same year. Meanwhile Henry, Rob
ert, and Cornelia were growing up to manhood and
womanhood, and getting their education by books and
hard knocks. Henry was married in September, 1878,
and Robert was tutor in Beloit College, and Cornelia a
teacher in the Beloit city schools.

At these new home centers children had been growing
up. At Kalgan, China, there were six; at Santee, Neb.,
five ; at Sisseton, D. T.,four; at Vinton, Iowa, three, and
at Fort Sully, D. T., one. Another sister had also come
at the Beloit home.

And now the Chinese cousins were coming home to the
America they had never seen. So it was determined
that on their arrival there should be a family meeting.
But where should it be? Every home was open and
urged its advantages. But Santee Agency, Nebraska,
united more of the requisite conditions of central posi
tion and roomy accommodations. And, besides, it was
eminently fitting that the meeting should be held on
missionary ground. And so from early in July on to
September the clan was gathering.

First carne Rev. Mark Williams and Isabella, with their
six children, fresh from China, finding the Santee Indian
reservation the best place to become acclimated to Amer
ica gradually. Father Riggs and Martha Riggs Morris,
with three of her children, from Sisseton Agency, arrived
the 18th of August. On the 27th came Anna Riggs

410 MARY AND I.

Warner, with her three children, from Yinton, Iowa.
Mother Riggs with little Edna arrived on the 29th, from
Beloit, Wis. Mr. Wyllys K. Morris and Harry, their
eldest son, came across the country by wagon, and drove
in Saturday evening, the 30th of August. Thomas L.
Riggs and little Theodore, with Robert B. Riggs, and
Mary Cornelia Octavia Riggs, and their caravan, did not
arrive from Fort Sully until Tuesday afternoon of the
2d of September. Alfred L. and Mary B. Riggs, and
Henry M. and Lucy D. Riggs were of course already
there, as they were at home, and the entertainers of the
gathering.

Now the family were gathered, and this is the Roll: —
Stephen Return Riggs, born in Steubenville, Ohio,
March 23, 1812; married, February 16, 1837, to Mary
Ann Longley, who was born November 10, 1813, in Haw-
ley, Mass., and died March 22, 1869, in Beloit, Wis.

I. Alfred Longley Riggs, born at Lac-qui-parle, Minn.,
December 6, 1837 ; married June 9, 1863, to Mary Buel
Hatch, who was born May 20, 1840, at Leroy, N. Y.

Children : Frederick Bartlett, born at Lockport, 111.,
July 14, 1865 ; Cora Isabella, born at Centre, Wis.,
August 19, 1868 ; Mabel, born at Santee Agency, Nebraska,
September 11, 1874 ; Olive Ward, born at Santee Agency,
Nebraska, June 13, 1876 ; Stephen Williamson, born at
Santee Agency, Nebraska, April 28, 1878.

II. Isabella Burgess Riggs, born at Lac-qui-parle,
Minn., February 21, 1840; married February 21, 1866, to
Rev. W. Mark Williams, who was born October 28, 1834,
in New London, Ohio.

Children : Henrietta Blodget, born at Kalgan, China,
September 25, 1867; Stephen Riggs, born at Kalgan,
China, August 22, 1870 ; Emily Diament, born at Kalgan,

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 411

China, May 26, 1873 ; Mary Eliza, born at Kalgan, China,
August 3, 1875; Margaret and Anna, born at Kalgan,
China, May 30, 1878.

III. Martha Taylor Riggs, born at Lac-qui-parle,
Minn., January 27, 1842; married December 18, 1866, to
Wyllys King Morris, who was born in Hartford, Conn.,
September 11, 1842.

Children : Henry Stephen, born at Sterling, Minn.,
June 21, 1868; Philip Alfred, born at Good Will, D. T.,
August 4, 1872, and died at Binghamton, N". Y., August
18, 1873 ; Mary Theodora, born at Good Will, D. T.,
July 31, 1874; Charles Riggs, born at Good Will, D. T.,
June 21, 1877; Nina Margaret Foster, born at Good
Will, D. T., May 30, 1879.

IV. Anna Jane Riggs, born at Traverse des Sioux,
Minn., April 13, 1845; married October 14, 1870, to
Horace Everett Warner, who was born January 10, 1839,
near Painesville, Ohio.

Children : Marjorie, born at Belle Plaine, Iowa,
September 29, 1872; Arthur Hallam, born in Yinton,
Iowa, October 28, 1875 ; Everett Longley, born in Yinton,
Iowa, July 15, 1877.

Y. Thomas Lawrence Riggs, born at Lac-qui-parle,
Minn., June 3, 1847 ; married December 26, 1872, to
0 >nielia Margaret Foster, who was born in Bangor,
Me., March 19, 1848, and died August 5, 1878, at Fort
Sully, D. T.

Child : Theodore Foster, born near Fort Sully, D. T.,
July 7, 1874.

YI. Henry Martyn Riggs, born at Lac-qui-parle,
Minn., September 25, 1849; married September 24, 1878,
to Lucy M. Dodge, who was born at Grafton, Mass.,
February 29, 1852.

412 MARY AND I.

VII. Robert Baird Riggs, born at Hazelwood, Minn.,
May 22, 1855.

VIII. Mary Cornelia Octavia Riggs, born at Hazel-
wood, Minn., February 17, 1859.

Stephen R. Riggs married, May 28, 1872, Mrs. Annie
Baker Ackley, who was born March 14, 1835, in Gran-
ville, Ohio.

IX. Edna Baker Riggs, born at Beloit, Wis., Decem
ber 2, 1874.

The sons and daughters brought into the original family
by marriage contributed much to the success of the re
union. The cousins will not soon forget the inimitable
stories of Uncle Mark. Horace E. Warner wrote a
charming letter, proving conclusively that he was really
present ; while Uncle "VVyllys must have gained the per
petual remembrance of the boys by taking them swim
ming. Mary Hatch Riggs was the unflagging main-spring
of the whole meeting. Lucy Dodge Riggs presided hos
pitably at the "Young men's hall," where many of the
guests were entertained; and the new mother, Annie
Baker Riggs, won the love of all.

It would not have been a perfect meeting without sec-
ing the face of John P. Williamson, the elder brother of
the mission. Then, too, there was our friend Rev.
Joseph Ward, whose home at Yankton has so often been
the "House Beautiful" to our missionary pilgrims. We
were also favored with the presence of many of our mis
sionary women : Mrs. Hall of Fort Berthold, Misses
Collins and Irvine, from Fort Sully, and Misses Shepard,
Paddock, Webb, and Skea, of Santee. The children will
long remember the party given them by Miss Shepard in
the Dakota Home, and the picnic on the hill.

It is impossible to give any adequate report of such a

APPENDIX. — MONOGBAPHS. 413

reunion. The renewal of acquaintance, taking the bear
ings of one another's whereabouts in mental arid spiritual
advance, is more through chit-chat and incidental revela
tions than in any of the things that can be told.

And so we gather in as memorials and reminders some
of the papers read at the evening sociables, and some
paragraphs from reports of the reunion published in the
Word Carrier and Advance. First, we will have Isa
bella's paper, the story of that long journey home— -By
Land and by Sea : —

" Ding lang, ding lang, ding lang! Hear the bells. The litters
are packed, the good-bys spoken. Thirteen years of work in sor
row and in joy are over. * Good-by. We will pray for you all;
do not forget us.'

" Down the narrow street, past the closely crowded houses of more
crowded inmates, beyond the pale green of the gardens, on the
stony plain, and our long journey is begun.

"Eight hours and the first inn is reached, we having made a
twenty-five-mile stage. Over rocks and river, fertile lake-bed;
desert plain, and through mountain-gorge, we creep our way, till,
on the fifth day, the massive walls of Peking loom up before us.

" Here there are cordial greetings from warm hearts, and willing
hands stretched out to help. Best of all is the inspiration of
mission meeting, with its glad, good news from Shantung Province.

"By cart and by canal boat again away. At Tientsin we ride
by starlight, in jinrickshas, to the steamer. How huge the mon
ster! How broad seems the river, covered here and yonder, and
again yonder, with fleets of boats !

" We ensconce ourselves in the assigned state-rooms, and little
Anna's foster-mother keeps a vigil by the child so soon to be hers
no more. ' Farewell, farewell.'

"Gray morning comes, and the ponderous engine begins his
work. We move past boats, ships, steamers, past the fort at
Taku, out on the open sea. No one sings, ' A Life on the Ocean
Wave,' or ' Murmuring Sea,' for our ' day of youth went yester
day.' The enthusiasm of early years is gone. Instead, I read
reverently the 107th Psalm, verses 23, 31. Then with the strong,

414 MAllY AND I.

glad, spray-laden breeze on one's face, it is fitting to read, 'The
Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than
the mighty waves of the sea.' ' Let the sea roar, and the fulness
thereof. Let the floods clap their hands . . . before the Lord.'
'The sea is his and he made it.' 'The earth is full of thy
riches. So is this great and wide sea. There go the ships : there
is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.'

"Five days, and we steam up through the low, flat, fertile
shores of Woo Sung River to Shanghai.

" Ho for the land of the rising sun! Two days we sail over a
silver sea ; yonder is Nagasaki, and now a heavy rain reminds us
that this is Japan. On through the Inland Sea. How surpass
ingly beautiful are the green hills and mountains on every side.

"At Kobe we receive a delightful welcome from Mr. C. H.
Gulick's family, and on the morrow we meet our former co-laborer
in the Kalgan work, Rev. J. T. Gulick. Ten days of rest, and
our little Anna is herself again. She is round and fair and sweet,
and every one laughingly says she is more like our hostess than
like me.

" Again away, in a floating palace, fitly named City of Tokio.
We glide out of sight of Japan, with hearts strangely stirred by
God's work in that land.

" One sail after another disappears, until we are alone on the
great ocean. Water, water, water everywhere.

" Our days are all alike. Constant care of the children and
thoughts of home and beloved ones keep hand and heart busy.
The events of each day are breakfast, tiffin, and dinner, daintily
prepared, and faultlessly served by deft and noiseless waiters. We
think it a pleasant variety when a stiff breeze makes the waves
run high. The table racks are on, yet once and again a glass of
water or a plate of soup goes over. We turn our plates at the
proper angle, when the long roll begins, and unconcernedly go on.

" One day of waves mountain high, which sweep us on to our
desired haven. On the eighteenth day we see the shore of beautiful
America. How the heart beats! So soon to see father, brothers,
and sisters! Thank God. Aye, tLank him too for the manifold
mercies of our journey.

" How strange and yet familiar are the sights and sounds of
San Francisco. The children's eyes shine as they plan and
execute raids on a toy store.

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 415

" There is yet the land journey of thousands of miles. By
night and by day we speed on; across gorge, through tunnel and
snow-shed, over the alkali plains, over fertile fields to Omaha.

"At last we arrive in Yankton, and a cheery voice makes
weary hearts glad. 'I am Mr. Ward. Your brother Henry is
here.' Ah, is that Henry! How he has changed from boyhood
to manhood !

" ' Over the hills and far away.' Here we are! How beautiful
the mission houses look ! And the dear familiar faces ! Rest and
home at last for a little while. ' For here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come.' "

But journeying may be done much more quickly by
thought, and spirit may go as quick as thought. So here
is the account of Horace E. Warner's thought journey
to the family meeting : —

" If there has seemed to be any lack of interest on my part in
the family reunion, it is only in the seeming. For my decision to
stay at home was made with deep regret, and after the slaying of
much strong desire. But, aside from the gratification which it
would have given me to see you all, and which I hope it would
have given you to see me, I do not think the idea of the meeting is
impaired by my absence. Only this — I feel as though I had, not
wilfully nor willingly, but none the less certainly, cut myself off
from that sympathy — in the Greek sense — which I stood in much
need of, and can ill afford to miss.

" I suppose you are now all together with one accord in one
place, so far as that is possible. To be all together would require
the union of two worlds. And this may be, too, — shall we not
say it is so ? But if the dear ones from the unseen world are
present, though you can not hear their speech nor detect their
presence by any of the senses, can not you feel that I am really
with you in some sense too ? Of course, the difference is great, but
so also the difference is great between the meeting of friends in the
natural body and the spiritual body. If the mind, the soul, con
stitutes the man rather than the animal substances, or the myriad
cells which make up his physical organization, why may not I
leap over the insignificant barrier that divides us ? As I write,

416 MARY AND I.

this feeling is very strong with me. It is vague and indefinite,
but yet it seems to me that I have been having some kind of
communication or communion with you. At all events, my heart
goes out strongly toward you all with fervent desire that the
meeting will be full of joy and comfort — of sweetest and spiritual
growth — the occasion of new inspiration, new courage, new hopes.
It is not likely that there can be any repetition of it this side of
the ' city which hath foundations.'

"So the memories of this meeting should be the sweetest, and
should cluster thick around you in the years of separation. This
much I must perforce miss. For though I do truly rejoice in your
joys, and partake with you of the gladness of the meeting after so
long a time; yet it is only by imagination and sympathy that I
make myself one with you, and of this the future can have no
recollection."

Now we will let others give their thoughts of the
meeting, as it seemed to them from outside. And, first,
a few words from Rev. John P. Williamson of Yankton
Agency : —

" The first week in September, 1879, will long be remembered by
the Riggs family, and by one or two who were not Riggses. From
the east and the west, from the north and the south, and from
across the mighty Pacific, they gathered at the eldest brother's
house, at Santee Agency, Nebraska, for a family reunion. It was
forty-two years last February since Stephen Return Riggs married
Mary Ann Longley and came out as a missionary to the Dakotas ;
and now in his sixty-eighth year, his step still light, and his heart
still young, he walks in to his son's house to find himself surrounded
by nine children, three sons-in-law, two daughters-in-law, and nine
teen grandchildren; with himself and wife making a company of
thirty-five, and all present except one son-in-law.

" This roll may never be as interesting to universal mankind as
that in the tenth chapter of Genesis, but it is almost extended
enough to evolve a few general truths. If we were to pick these
up, our first deduction would be that like begets like. This man
has certainly given more than his proportion of missionaries.
And why, except that like begets like ? He was a missionary, his

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 417

children partook of his spirit, and became missionaries. We
heard some mathematical member of the company computing the
number of years of missionary service the family had rendered.
The amount has slipped our memory, but we should say it was
over one hundred and fifty.

" Our other deduction would be that the missionary profession
is a healthy one. Here is a family of no uncommon physical
vigor, and yet not a single death occurred among the children,
who are in goodly number. True, the mother of the family has
finished her work and crossed the river to wait with her longing
smile the coming children, but another ministers in her room,
who has added little Aunt Edna to the list, to stand before her
father when the rest are far away."

Next, we have the observations of Rev. Joseph Ward
of Yankton : —

" Families have their characteristic points as well as individ
uals. The family of Rev. S. R. Riggs, D.D., is no exception to
this. Their characteristics all point in one direction. It is nota
bly a missionary family. It began on missionary ground forty-
two years ago at Lac-qui-parle, Minn. From that time until
the present the name of the family head has always appeared in
the list of missionaries of the American Board. One after another
the names of the children have been added to the list, until now
we find Alfred, Isabella, Martha, Thomas, Henry, attached to.
the mission; and doing genuine missionary work, though not
bearing a commission from the board, are two more, Robert and
Cornelia.

"What place more suitable for the meeting together of father,
children, and children's children — thirty-four all told, counting
those who have joined the family by marriage — than Santee
Agency, Nebraska, a mission station of the A. B. 0. F. M.

" Though not of the family, I was honored by an invitation to
attend the meeting, assured that a ' bed and a plate would be re
served for me ' ; and so, on the first Tuesday of September, I
stood on the bank of the Missouri, opposite the agency, waiting
for the ferry-man to set me across. I came at the right time, for
presently the delegation from Fort Sully drove their two teams to
the landing, and in a moment more Rev. J. P. Williamson, with

418 MARY AND I.

his oldest daughter, from Yankton Agency, were added to our
number.

"They came from the east and the west and the north.
These from Sisseton, these from Sully, and these from the land of
Sinim, for the oldest daughter and her husband, Rev. Mark Will
iams, have been for thirteen years in Kalgan, Northern China,
and now for the first time come back to see the father and the
fatherland. The personal part of the meeting I have no right to
mention. I speak only of its missionary character. The very
prudential committee itself, in its weekly meetings, cannot be
more thoroughly imbued with a missionary spirit than was every
hour of this reunion. And how could it be otherwise ? All the
reminiscences were of their home on missionary ground, at Lac-
qui-parle, at Traverse des Sioux, and at Hazelwood. Did they
talk of present duties and doings ? What could they have for
their theme but life at Kalgan, at Good Will, at Santee, and at
Sully ! Did they look forward to what they would do after the
family meeting was over ? The larger part were to go two hun
dred miles and more overland, to attend the annual meeting of
the Indian churches at Brown Earth. And, besides, how to reach
out from their present stations and seize new points for work was
the constant theme of thought.

" Wednesday evening there was a gathering of the older ones
and the larger children. The father read a sketch recalling a few
incidents of the family life. The reading brought now laughter
and then tears. Forty-two years could not come and go without
leaving many a sorrow behind.

"The mother, who had lived her brave life for a third of a
century among the Indians, was not there. A beautiful crayon
portrait, hung that day for the first time over the piano, was a
sadly sweet reminder of her whose body was laid to rest only a year
ago among the Teetons, on the banks of the Upper Missouri.
Then another paper of memories from one of the daughters,
lighted with joy and shaded with sorrow, a few words of cheer
and counsel from the oldest son, and a talk in Chinese from the
Celestial member, were the formal features of the evening.

" As I sat in the corner of the study and heard and saw, there
came to me, clearer than ever before, the wonderful power there
is in a consecrated life. Well did one of them say that if they
had gained any success in their work, it was by singleness of

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 419

They have not been assigned to a prominent place in the work of
the world, but rather to the most hidden and hopeless part. But,
by their persistence of purpose, they have done much to lift up
and make popular, in a good sense, missionary work in general,
and particularly work for the Indians. It is a record that will
shine brighter and brighter through the ages. Eight children and
thirteen grandchildren born on missionary ground, and a total of
one hundred and fifty-eight years of missionary work.

*' But the end is not yet. They have just begun to get their
implements into working order. Their training-schools are just
beginning to bear fruit. Most fittingly, a few days before the
gathering began, came a large invoice of the entire Bible in
Dakota, the joint work of Dr. Riggs and his beloved friend and
fellow-worker, Dr. Williamson, who has just gone home to his
rest. At the same time came the final proof-sheets of a goodly-
sized hymn and tune book for the Dakotas, mainly the work of
the eldest sons of the two translators of the Bible. The harvest
that has been is nothing to the harvest that is to be. Dr. Riggs
may reasonably hope to see more stations occupied, more books
made, more churches organized in the future than he has seen in
the past. When the final record is made, he will have the title to
a great rejoicing that he and his family were permitted by the
Master to do so much to make a sinful world loyal again to its
rightful Lord."

Martha's paper, which was read on that occasion, is
a very touching description of a missionary journey made
under difficulties, six years before, from Sisseton to
Yankton Agency.

" GOING TO MISSION MEETING.

" As I sit on the doorsteps in the twilight, the little ones asleep
in their beds, I hear a solitary attendant on the choir-meeting
singing. His voice rings out clearly on the night air: —

" ' Jesus Christ nitowashte kin
"Woptecashni mayaqu ' —

singing it to the tune, Watchman.

420 MARY AND I.

" That tune has a peculiar fascination and association for me,
and my thoughts often go back over the time when I first heard it.

" It was in the month of roses, in the year '73, that, in company
with some of the Renvilles and others, I undertook a land jour
ney to the Missouri. I had with me the lad Harry, then five
years old, and a sunny-haired boy of nearly a year, little Philip
Alfred. He never knew his name here. Does he know it now ?
Or has he another, an ' angel name ' ?

" The rains had been abundant, and the roads were neither
very good nor very well traveled. So some unnecessary time was
spent in winding about among marshes, and we made slow prog
ress. More than once we came to a creek or a slough where the
water came into the wagons. The Indian women shouldered
their babies and bundles as well, and trudged through, with the
exception of Ellen Phelps and Mrs. Elias Gilbert. Their husbands
were so much of white men as to shoulder their wives and carry
them across. Being myself a privileged person, I was permitted
to ride over, first mounting the seat to the wagon, holding on for
dear life to the wagon-bows with one hand, and to the sunny-
haired boy with the other.

" By the end of the week we had only reached the Big Sioux,
which we found up and booming. I was crossed over in a canoe
with my two children, the stout arms of two Indian women pad
dling me over. Then we climbed up the bank, and waited for
the wagons to come around by some more fordable place down
below. While waiting, I talked awhile with Mrs. Wind, who had
been a neighbor of ours on the Coteau. Her lawful husband, a
man of strong and ungoverned passions, had grown tired of her
and taken another woman. So Mrs. Wind, who had borne with
his overbearing and his occasional beatings, quietly left him.
This was an indignity her proud spirit could not brook. She
went to the River Bend Settlement to live with her son, and there
I saw her. I said to her, ' Shall you go back to the hill country ? '
' No,' she said; ' the man has taken another wife, and I shall not
go.' I have since heard of her from time to time, and she still
remains faithful.

" The Sabbath over, we went on again re-inforced by the delega
tion from Flandreau. Reaching Sioux Falls in the afternoon,
we avoided the town, and went on to a point where some one
thought the river might be fordable. But alas! we found we had

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 421

been indulging in vain expectations. The river was not forda-
ble, and canoe or ferry-boat there was none. But necessity is the
mother of invention. The largest and strongest wagon-box was
selected, the best wagon-cover laid on the ground, the boat lifted
in, and, with the aid of various ropes, an impromptu boat was
made ready. Long ropes were tied securely to either end, poles
laid across the box to keep things out of the water, and then the
boat was launched. The men piled in the various possessions of
different ones and as many women and children as they thought
safe. Then four of the best swimmers took the ropes and swam
up the river for quite a distance, coming down with the current,
and so gaining the other shore. This occupied some time, and
was repeated slowly until night came on, finding the company
partly on one side and partly on the other. The wagon, in which
we had made our bed o' nights, not being in a condition for sleep
ing in, as the box lay by the river-side all water-soaked, Edwin
Phelps and Ellen, his wife, kindly vacated theirs for our benefit,
themselves sleeping on the ground. When the early morning
came, the camp was soon astir, and, breakfast being hastily de
spatched, the work of crossing over was renewed. I watched them
drive over the horses ; the poor animals were very loath to make a
plunge, and some of them turned and ran back on the prairie
more than once before they were finally forced into the water.
When most of the others were over it came my turn to cross.
The so-called boat looked rather shaky, but there was nothing to
do but to get in and take one's chance. So I climbed in, keeping
as well as I could out of the water, which seemed to nearly fill
the wagon-box. Some one handed the two children in, and, bold-
ing tightly to them, I resigned myself to the passage. At one
time I heard a great outcry, but could not distinguish any words,
and so sat still, unconscious that one of the ropes had broken,
rendering the boat more unsafe still. At last I was safely over,
thankful enough. When finally every thing and everybody were
across, and the boat restored to its proper place, we started on our
way, at about ten o'clock in the morning. To make up for the
late starting, the teams were driven hard and long, and the twi
light had already gathered when we stopped for the night. After
1 had given my children a simple supper, and they were hushed
to sleep, I looked out on the picturesque scene. The great red
moon was rising in the sky, and in its light the travelers had

422 MARY AND I.

gathered around the camp-fire for their evening devotions. As I
walked across to join them, they were singing: —

" 'Jesus Christ, nitowashte kin
Woptecashni raayaqu ' —

" ' Jesus Christ, thy loving kindness
Boundlessly thou givest me' —

to the tune Watchman. It struck my fancy, and I seldom hear it
now without thinking of that night, and of the sunny-haired boy
who was then taking his last earthly journey, and who has all
these years been learning of the goodness of the Lord Jesus
Christ in all its wonderful fulness. An incident of one day's
travel remains clear in my mind. The lad Harry often grew
tired and restless, as was not strange, and so sometimes he was
somewhat careless too. In an unguarded moment, he fell out,
and one of the hind wheels passed over his body. How I
held my breath until the horses could be stopped and the boy
reached ! It seemed a great marvel that he had received no injury.
It was surely the goodness of the Lord that had kept him from
harm.

" On Wednesday we came into Yankton, where I bought a
quantity of beef, wishing to show my appreciation of the labors
of the men in our behalf. So when camp was made at night
the women had it to make into soup, and, almost before it
seemed that the water could have fairly boiled, all hands
were called to eat of it, and it was despatched with great
celerity.

" The next afternoon a fierce storm broke over us, and we were
compelled to stop for an hour or more, while the rain poured
down in torrents and the heavens were one continual flame
of light. When again we started on, every hole by the road
side had become a pool, and the water was rushing througn
every low place in streams. The rain retarded our progress
greatly, yet we came in sight of the Yankton Agency before
noon of the next day. Just as we reached it, we found a
little creek to cross, where a bridge had been washed away
the night before. The banks were almost perpendicular, and
we held our breath as we watched one team after another go
down and come up, feeling sure that some of the horses would go

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 423

down and not come up again. But, to our great relief, all went
safely over. And very soon we had arrived at the mission house
occupied by Rev. J. P. Williamson and family, and were receiv
ing the kindly welcomes of all. The hospitality there enjoyed
was such as to make us almost forget ouwtedious journey thither
ward.

" From my traveling companions I had received all possible
kindness, yet in many ways I had found the journey quite try
ing. It was not practicable to vary one's diet very much, with
the care of the little ones just large enough to get into all mis
chief imaginable. So I remembered with especial gratitude
Edwin and Ellen Phelps, who used now and then, at our stop
ping-places, to borrow the boy, so helping me to get a little
rest or to do some necessary work which would otherwise
have been impossible. At that time Edwin and his wife
had no children, and their eyes often followed my boy with
yearning looks. Since then the Lord has given them little
ones to train for his kingdom, and they are happy.

" But of that little sunny-haired baby boy we have naught but
a memory left — and this consolation : —

" ' Christ, the good Shepherd, carries my lamb to-night,
And that is best.'

" And this : —

" ' Mine entered spotless on eternal years,
Oh, how much blest! '"

During the meeting the tastes and needs of the
children were not forgotten, but Aunt Anna held them
attent to her

MEMORIES OF THE OLD HOME-LIFE, WRITTEN FOR THE
GRANDCHILDREN.

" Shut your eyes, and see with me the home place at Lac-qui-
parle — a square house with a flat roof, a broad stone step be
fore the wide-open door — cheery and sunshiny within. Wel
come to grandfather's home!

" To the right, in the distance, is the lake Mdeiyedan, where,
like a tired child, the sun dropped his head to rest each night.

424 MARY AND I.

Between us and the lake was a wooded ravine, at the foot of
which, down that little by-path, was the coolest of springs, with
wild touch-me-nots nodding above it, and a little further on a
large boulder on which we used to play.

"It seems to us as if f^e had but just come in from a long sum
mer's walk, with our hands full of flowers, and each and every
one must have a bouquet to set in his or her favorite window.
The wind, blowing softly, brings with it a breath of sweet cleavers,
and — well, so I must tell you what I remember.

" I can not stop to tell you of all the little things that made our
home pk-a^ant and lovely in our eyes ; or of the dear mother who
had it in her keeping, for I know all the grandchildren are waiting
for their stories.

" Well, I will begin by telling the wee cousins about the family
cat, Nelly Ely, and one of her kittens, Charlotte Corday. Kittens
have some such cunning ways, you know, but Nelly Ely was one
of the knovvingest and best. She and her kitten were as much
alike as two peas in a pod — jet-black, and with beautiful yellow-
green eyes. Nelly Ely used to curl herself up to sleep in grandpa's
fur cap, or sometimes in grandma's work-basket; and if she could
do neither, she would find a friendly lap. One day poor pussy
chose much too warm a place. Grandma had started up the
kitchen fire, and was making preparations for dinner when she
heard pussy mewing piteously — as she thought, in some other room.
She went to the doors one by one to let pussy in, and no pussy
appeared, but still she heard her mewing as if in pain. What
could grandma do ? She was neither down cellar nor up-stairs.
She would look out-of-doors — but no — just then pussy screamed
in an agony of pain. Grandma ran to the stove, opened the door,
and pussy, as if shot out from a cannon's mouth, came flying past
us — her back singed and her poor little paws all burned. I can't
tell whether she learned the moral of that lesson or not, but I
know she never was shut up in the oven again.

"Yet not so very long after, when the old house was burned,
Nelly Ely and Charlotte Corday found a sadder fate. Poor little
kittens! — we spent hour after hour searching for their bones, but
with small success, and then we buiied them with choking sobs
and eyes wet with childish tears.

"Do not let me forget to tell you of Pembina and Flora, nor of
the starry host that bedecked our barn-yard sky — every calf, how-

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 425

ever humble, was worthy of a name. There were our oxen, Dick
and Darby, George and Jolly, and Leo and Scorpio, who used to
weave along with stately swinging tread under their burden of
hay. Then Spika and Denebola, Luna and Lyra — all worthy of
honorable mention. Flora, gentle, but with an eye that terrified
the little maid who sometimes milked her, — so, with wise fore
thought, a handful of salt was sometimes thrown into the bottom
of her pail. You will hardly believe it, but she grew to be so fond
of her pail that she found her way into the winter kitchen and
anticipated her evening meal. How she ever got through two
gates and two doors is a mystery still.

"And there was Pembina— how well we remember the day
when grandpa brought home a new cow, and how we all went
down to meet him, and named her and her calf, Little Dorrit, on
the spot. She was the children's cow par excellence, and blessings
on her, we could all milk at a time. She had several bad habits,
one of which was eating old clothes and paper, or rubbish gener
ally. Once I remember she made a vain attempt at swallowing a
beet, and if grandpa had not come in the nick of time to beat her
on the back she would have been dead beat.

" Our horses, too, were a part of the family. There were Polly
and Phenie, short for Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine — Fanny
and Tatty coram (we had been reading Dickens then).

UI remember hearing our own mother tell of the ox they had
when they lived at Traverse des Sioux, their only beast of burden,
and how he used to stand and lick the window-panes, and how
when the Indians shot him she felt as if she had lost a friend and
companion.

" if these stories of our dear animal friends grow too tiresome, I
might remember about the Squill family at Hazelwood — how they
all, including Timothy and Theophilus, contributed something
every week to a family paper. I wonder if Theophilus remembers
writing an essay for — with red ink from his arm — and how
Isabella said, ' Now, be brave, Martha, be brave ! ' when she was
letting herself down from the topmost round of the ladder —
and how Isabella, when beheading the pope in her fanatical zeal,
split her forefinger writh a chisel.

"These are a very few only of the rememberings — some of
them are too sacred and too dear to speak about — but even
these little incidents seem endeared by the long stretch of years."

426 MARY AND I.

Some memories of former days were revived for the
older children, and imparted to the younger ones, by the
Father's Paper : —

I REMEMBER.

As one grows old, memory is, in some sense, unreliable.
It does not catch and hold as it once did. But many
things of long ago are the things best remembered. Often
there is error in regard to dates. The mind sees the
things or the events vividly, but the surroundings are
dim and uncertain. What is aimed at in this paper is to
gather up, or rather select, some events lying along the
family line and touching personal character.

The family commences with the mother. I remember
well my first visit to Bethlehem, Ind., where I first
met Mary, with whom I had been corresponding, having
had an introduction through Rev. Dyer Burgess. That
was in the spring. My second visit to the same place was
in the autumn of 1836, when the school-mistress and I
went on to New England together.

FIRST VISIT TO MASSACHUSETTS.

Of that journey eastward, and the winter spent in
Hawley, I should naturally remember a good many
things : How when the stage from Albany and Troy put
us down in Cbarlemont, we hired a boy with a one-horse
wagon to carry us six miles to Hawley. But when we
came to going up the steep, rough, long hill, such as I had
never climbed before, the horse could only scramble up
with the baggage alone. How we reached the Longley
homestead in a real November storm, only a few days
before Thanksgiving, and were greeted by the grandpar
ents, ninety years old, and by the father and mother and

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS. 427

brothers and sisters — all of whom, except Moses, have
since gone to the other side. How only a day after our
arrival I was waited upon by a committee of the West
Hawley church, and engaged to preach for them during the
winter. How every Saturday I walked down to Pudding
Hollow and preached on Sabbath, and usually walked up
on Monday, when I did not get snowed in. How the
first pair of boots I ever owned, bought in Ohio, proved
to be too small to wade in snow with, and had to be aban
doned. How the old family horse had a knack of turn
ing us over into snow-drifts. How on our first visit to
Buckland, the grandfather Taylor, then about ninety-five
years old, when he was introduced to Mary Ann's future
husband, a young minister from the West, asked, " Did
you ever think what a good horseman Jesus Christ was?
Why, he rode upon a colt that had never been broke."
How the old meeting-house on the hill, with its square
pews and high pulpit, creaked and groaned in the storm
of our wedding day, February 16, 1837. How we left in
the first days of March, when the snow-drifts on the hills
were still fifteen feet deep.

March, April, May passed, and the first day of June we
landed at Fort Snelling, in the land of the Dakotas.

When another three moons were passed by, and we had
seen St. Anthony and Minnehaha, and made some ac
quaintance with the natives, I remember we took passage,
with our effects, on board a Mackinaw boat for Traverse
des Sioux. The boat was in command of Mr. Prescott,
who accommodated us with tent-room on the journey, and
made the week pass comfortably for us. From Traverse
des Sioux to Lac-qui-parle we had our first experience of
prairie traveling and camping. It was decidedly a new
experience. But we had the company of Dr. Williamson

428 MARY AND I.

and Mr. G. H. Pond, while we commenced to learn the
lesson.

AT LAC-QUI-PARLE.

The long, narrow room, partly under the roof, of Dr.
Williamson's log house, which became our home for
nearly five years from that September, is one of the
memories that does not fade.

On the 6th of December I remember coming home
from Mr. Renville's, where we had been all the afternoon
obtaining translations. Then there was hurrying to and
fro, and the first baby came into our family of two. From
that time on we were three, and the little Zitkadan-Washta,
as the Indians named him, grew as other children grow,
and did what most children don't do, viz., learn to go
down stairs before he did up, because we lived upstairs,
and all children can manage to go away from home, when
they can't or won't come back of themselves.

In those years our annual allowance from the treasury
of the board was $250. This was more than the other
families in the mission had proportionally. But it re
quired considerable economy and great care in expendi
ture to make the ends meet. Not knowing the price of
quinine, and thinking four ounces could not be a great
amount, we were much surprised to find the bill $16. But
Dr. Turner of Fort Snelling kindly took it off our hands.

Once we were discussing the question of how much
additional expense the baby would be, when I said,
" About two dollars." Thereafter Mr. S. W. Pond, who
was present at the time, called the boy " Mazaska nonpa."

A PLEASANT TRIP.

In the second month of 1840, our three became four.
And when the leaves came out and the flowers began to

APPENDIX. M ONOGRAPHS. 429

appear, the mother had a great desire to go somewhere.
But the only place to go was to Fort Snelling. And so,
leaving Chaskay and taking Hapan, we crossed the
prairie to the Traverse des Sioux in company with Mr.
Renville's caravan. The expectation was that the fur
company's boat would be there. But it was not ; nor
even a canoe, save a little leaky one, which barely aided
us in crossing the St. Peters. The journey through the
Big Woods was over logs and through swamps and streams
for seventy-five miles. We had two horses but no saddle.
Our tent and bedding and such things as we must have
on the journey were strapped on the horses. The moth
er rode one, — not very comfortable, as may be supposed,
— but the baby girl had a better ride on a Dakota woman's
back. At the end of ten miles, " le grand canoe " was
found, in which they took passage. That ten miles was
destined to be remembered by our return also ; for there
where the town of Le Sueur now stands our bark canoe
finally failed us, and, without an Indian woman to carry
the baby, we walked up to the Traverse, through the wet
grass. Altogether, that was a trip to be remembered.

One other thing comes to my mind about our first
" little lady." There was only one window in our up
stairs room. On the outside of that the mother had a
shelf fixed to set out milk on. One morning, when every
one was busy or out, the little girl, not two years old,
climbed out of the window and perched herself on that
shelf. It gave us a good scare.

JOURNEY TO NEW ENGLAND.

In the first month of 1842 our family of four was in
creased to Jive. And when the summer came on, we took
a longer journey, which extended to New England. This

430 MARY AND I.

time Hapan was left behind and Hapistinna and Chaskay
were the companions of our journey. The grandmother
in Hawley saw and blessed her grandchild namesake Mar
tha Taylor. "Good Bird" says he remembers picking
strawberries in the Hawley meadow, where his i.ncle
Alfred was mowing, in those summer mornings.

NEW STATION AT TKAVEKSE DES SIOUX.

A whole year passed, and we came back to the land of
the Dakotas, to make a new home at Traverse des Sioux,
to experience our first great sorrow, and to consecrate
our Allon-bach-uth for the noble brother Thomas Law
rence Longley. That was a garden of roses, but a village
of drinking and drunken Sioux ; and more of trial came
into our life of a little more than three years spent there
than in any other equal portion. There our Wanskay
was born, and started in life under difficulties. Our fam
ily vifive had now become six. Provisions of a good qual
ity were not easily obtained. But it happened that wild
rice and Indian sugar were abundant, and the laws of hered
ity visited the sins of the parents on our third little lady
child. But, with all the disadvantages of the start, the
little " urchin " grew, and grew, like the others.

SENT BACK TO LAOQUI-PAKLE.

Trouble and sorrow baptize and consecrate. The many
trials attendant upon commencing our station at Traverse
des Sioux and the oaks of weeping there had greatly en
deared the place to the mother; and when, in September
of 1846, the mission voted that we should go back to Lac-
qui-parle, she could not see that it was duty, and went
without her own consent. It was a severe trial. In a
few months she became satisfied that the Lord had led us.

APPENDIX. — MONOGRAPHS.

431

What of character the boy Halce, who was born in the
next June, inherited from these months of sadness, I
know not, but as he came along up, we called him a
" Noble Boy." The family had then reached the sacred
number seven.

In the year that followed we built a very comfortable
frame-house — indeed, two of them — one for Mr. Jonas
Pettijohn's family — comfortable, except that the snow
would drift in through the ash shingles. Some of the
older children can, perhaps, remember times when there was
more snow inside than outside. We were up on the hill,
and not under it, where Dr. Williamson and Mr. Huggins
had built a dozen years before; and consequently the
winter winds were fiercer, though we all thought the
summers were pleasanter. In this house our sixth child
was born, who has no Dakota cognomen. We shall call
him Ishakpe. The half-dozen years in which we made
that house our home were full of work, broken in upon
by a year spent in the East — myself in New York City
chiefly. Henry, who could say to enquirers, " I was two
years old last September," and Isabella were with their
mother in Massachusetts and Brooklyn — Martha and
Anna in the capital of Minnesota, and Thomas at the
mission station of Kaposia; Alfred, I believe, was at
Galesburg, 111.

EDUCATING THE CHILDREN.

It has been a question that we often discussed, " How
shall we get our children educated ? The basis of allow
ance from the treasury of the board had been on the prin
ciple of the Methodist circuit riders. The $250 with
which we commenced was increased $50 for each child.
So that at this time our salary was either $500 or $550.

432 MARY AND I.

It was never greater than the last sum until after the
outbreak in 1862. We lived on it comfortably, but there
was very little margin for sending children away to
school. And now we were reaching that point in our
family history when a special effort must be made in that
direction. Before we went on East in 1851, the mother
and I had talked the matter over — perhaps some good
family would like to take one of the children to educate.
And so it was, more than one good offer was received for
the little boy Henry. But our hearts failed us. Mrs.
Minerva Cook of Brooklyn said to me, " You are afraid
we will make an Episcopalian of him." So near was he to
being a bishop !

MISSION HOUSE BURNED.

Many remembrances have to be passed over. The
last picture I have of those mission houses at Lac-qui-
parle is when, on the 3d of March, 1854, they were en
veloped in fire. The two little boys had been down
cellar to get potatoes for their mother, and, holding the
lighted candle too near to the dry hay underneath the
floor, the whole was soon in a conflagration, which our
poor efforts could not stop. The houses were soon a
heap of ashes, and the meat and many of the potatoes in
the cellar were cooked. The adobe church was then our
asylum, and the family home for the summer.

BUILD AT HAZELWOOD.

While occupying the old church and making prepara
tions to rebuild, Secretary S. B. Treat visited us. After
consultation, our plans were changed, and we erected our
mission buildings at Hazel wood, twenty-five miles further
down the Minnesota, and near to Dr. Williamson's and
the Yellow Medicine Agency. During the eight years

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 433

spent there, many things connected with the family life
transpired. First among them worthy to be noted was
the rounding out of the number of children to eight —
" Toonkanshena," so called by the Indians — just why, I
don't know — and Octavia the Hakakta. In those days
our Family Education Society had to devise ways and
means to keep one always, and sometimes two, away at
school. By and by, Zitkadan-Washta graduated at
Knox College, and Hapan and Hapistinna at the West
ern Female Seminary and College Hill respectively. How
we got them through seems even now a mystery. But I
remember one year we raised a grand crop of potatoes,
and sold 100 barrels to the government for $300 in gold.
That was quite a lift. And so the Lord provided all
through — then and afterward. Nothing was more re
markable in our family history for twenty-five years than
its general health. We had very little sickness. I
remember a week or so of doctoring on myself during
our first residence at Lac-qui-parle. Then, the summer
after our return there, the fever and ague took hold of
two or three of the children. The mother also was taken
sick suddenly in the adobe church, and Dr. Williamson
and I had a night ride up from Hazelwood. At this
place (Hazelwood) the baby boy Toonkanshena was sick
one night, I remember, and we gave him calomel and
sent for the doctor. But the most serious sickness of all
these years was that of my " urchin " and Henry, both
together of typhoid fever. I have always believed that
prayer was a part of the means of their recovery.

QUARTER OF A CENTURY.

When the summer of 1862 came, it rounded out a full
quarter of a century of missionary life for us. Alfred

434 MARY AND I.

had completed his seminary course, and in the meantime
had grown such a heavy black beard that when he and I
sat on the platform together, in a crowded church in
Cincinnati, the people asked which was the father and
which the son.

While waiting in Ohio for the graduating day of Ha-
pistinna to come, I ran up to Steubenville, where, I was
born, and walked out into the country to the old farm
where my boyhood was spent. The visit was not very
satisfactory. Scarcely any one knew me. Everything
had greatly changed.

THE OUTBREAK.

The memories of August 18, 1862, and the days that
followed, are vivid, but must in the main be passed over.
I can not forbear, however, to note what a sorry group we
were on that island on the morning of the 19th. How
finally the way appeared, and we filed up the ravine and
started over the prairie as fugitives ! How the rain came
on us that afternoon, and what a sorry camping we made
in the open prairie after we had crossed Hawk River !
How the little Hakakta girl, when bed-time came, wanted
to go home! How, when the rain had leaked down
through the wagon-bed all night upon them, Mrs. D.
Wilson Moore thought it would be about as good to die
as to live under such conditions ! How Hapistinna and
Wanskay wore off their toes walking through the sharp
prairie-grass ! How we stopped on the open prairie to
kill a cow and bake bread and roast meat, with no pans
to do it in ! And how, while the process was going on,
we had our picture taken ! How many scares we passed
through the night we passed around Fort Ridgely ! How
thus we escaped, like a bird from the snare of the fowler,

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 435

— the snare was broken, and we escaped. How, when
the company came to adjust their mutual obligations,
nobody had any money but D. Wilson Moore! How
those women met us on the top of the hill by Henderson,
and were glad to see us because we had white blood in
us ! How on the road we met our old friend Samuel W.
Pond, who welcomed our family to his house at Shakopee !
/

FAMILY IN ST. ANTHONY.

The memories of the campaign of the next three
months may be passed over, as having little connection
with the family. But I remember the night when, with
more than three hundred condemnations in my carpet-bag,
I had a long hunt at midnight for the little hired house
in which the mother and children had re-commenced
housekeeping. The three years in St. Anthony were ones
of varied experiences. Wanskay had gone down to
Rockford. Hapan and Hapistinna taught school and
kept house for the mother by turns. The three boys
went to school.

The War of the Rebellion was not over, but it was near-
ing its end, as we soon knew, when one day the noble boy
Thomas brought in a paper for me to sign, giving my
permission for his enlistment. I had heard and read so
much of boys of sixteen going almost at once into the
hospital that I threw the paper in the fire.

WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO?

The missionary work among the Dakotas was so broken
up, the clouds hung so heavily over it, that I very seri
ously entertained the question of giving up my commis
sion as a missionary of the American Board, and turning
my attention to work among white people. In my cor-

436 MARY AND I.

responclence with Secretary Treat I proposed a kind of
half-and-half work, but that was not approved. Finally
I wrote a letter of withdrawal, and sent it on to Boston.
But the prudential committee were slow to act upon it.
In the meantime, Rev. G. H. Pond came over and gave
me a long talk. He believed I should do no such thing ;
that the clouds wrould soon clear away ; that the need of
work such as I could give would be greater than ever
before. And so it was. To me Mr. Pond was a prophet
of the Lord, sent with a special message. I wanted to
know the way. And the voice said, " This is the way ;
walk in it." With new enthusiasm I then entered upon
the work of meeting the increasing demand for school-
books and for the Bible.

At the very beginning of the year 1865, having com
pleted my three months' work at the Bible House in
New York, in .reading the proof of the entire New Testa
ment in Dakota, and other parts of the Bible, as well as
other books, I returned to our home in St. Anthony to
find the mother away at the water-cure establishment.
We remember that as a year of invaUdism, of sickness.
But the skilful physician and the summer sun wrought
such a cure that in the autumn we removed to Beloit.
Here, with comparative health, she had three and a half
years of added life.

THE MOTHER CALLED AWAY.

Among the new things that took place in Beloit in the
year 1866 was the marriage of Hapan and Hapistinna,
the one starting off for the far-off land of the Celestials,
so-called, and the other to the frontier of Minnesota.
Wanskay was then our housekeeper, and the three boys
were in school. By and by the time came for the mother

APPENDIX. MONOGRAPHS. 437

to be called away. It was a brief sickness, and she passed
from us into the Land of Immortal Beauty. It was a
comfort to us that our first-born, Zitkadan-Washta, was
residing near by that winter and spring of 1869. As I
remember it, three children were far away, and five gath
ered around the mother's grave. Now, looking back
over the ten years passed since that time, I seem to
say: —

" My thoughts, like palms in exile,

Climb up to look and pray
For a glimpse of that heavenly country,
That seems not far away."

This is a good point to close and seal up the Memories.
For the rest, a few words may be sufficient. Manifestly,
as a family, God has been with us all the way, and the
blessings of the Lord Jehovah have been upon us.
Forty-two years ago we went out — two alone — into
the wilderness of prairie ; and now we have become one,
two, three, four, Jive, six, or more bands.

Sabbath, September 7, wound up the precious weeks;
and Sabbath evening was the transfiguration of the
whole. May its blessed memories tenderly abide in
all our hearts ! For a year or more, we had looked for
ward to the family meeting that was to be ; but now we
look back and remember with growing pleasure the meet
ing that was. As the wagons clattered away on Monday
morning, they broke the charmed spell, but each one
went his own way richer than he came.

A. L. R.

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